WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS 


A   CRITICAL   EXAMINATION   OF 

THE   WAGES   QUESTION 

AND   ITS   ECONOMIC   RELATION   TO 

SOCIAL   REFORM 


BY 
GEORGE   GUNTON 

AUTHOR   OF 

'  THE  ECONOMIC   AND   SOCIAL   IMPORTANCE   OF  THE    EIGHT-HOUR   MOVEMENT  ;  " 

"the  ECONOMIC   HERESIES   OF   HENRY   GEORGE;" 

"  THE  ECONOMIC  AND   SOCIAL   ASPECTS   OF  TRUSTS  ;  " 

"the  ECONOMIC   BASIS   OF  SOCIALISM,"    ETC. 


"  No  remedies  for  low  wages  have  the  smallest  chance  of  being  efficacious 
which  do  not  operate  on  and  through  the  minds  and  habits  of  the  people." 

—John  Stuart  Mill. 


^  OP  THE     ^^IS 


POPULAR  EDITION 


NEW   YORK 
APPLETON   AND    COMPANY 
1890 


n.0V 


^\^ 


p.y^^ 


Copyright,  1887, 
By  D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY. 


TO 

PARKE  QDDWIN, 

WHO   TO   A   PROFOUND   KNOWLEDGE   OF  ECONOMIC   SCIENCE 
ADDS   THE  BROADEST   HUMAN  SYMPATHIES, 
THIS    BOOK 
,  IS  RESPECTFULLY   INSCRIBED 

BY  THE  AUTHOR. 


NOTE. 

"Wealth  and  Progress"  is  an  exhaustive  discussion  of  the  wages 
question.  It  is  philosophic  in  scope,  historic  in  method,  and  reformatory 
in  purpose.  [  It  may  properly  be  regarded  as  the  first  application  of  the 
doctrine  of  evolution  to  the  labor  question^  Unlike  most  books  upon 
the  subject,  it  is  entirely  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  and  tendency  of 
modem  society.  Its  merit  has  already  been  recognized  by  prominent 
economists,  journalists,  business-men,  and  representative  workingmen  in 
America  and  Europe.  It  is  published  in  cloth  at  one  dollar,  but  is 
now  issued  in  cheap  form  at  the  request  of  friends  interested  in  the 
spreading  of  Mr.  Gunton's  economic  philosophy.  They  see  that  the  next 
great  issue  in  this  country  will  be  the  wages  question,  and  especially  the 
hours  of  labor,  upon  which  subject  it  is  safe  to  say  "  Wealth  and 
Progress  "  throws  more  'light  and  contains  more  data  than  are  to  be 
found  in  any  other  book. 

This  is  regarded  as  the  more  important,  because  Mr.  (Junton  has  in 
preparation  another  book,  which  will  shortly  appear,  applying  his 
economic  philosophy  to  all  the  phases  of  industrial  life — rent,  profit, 
interest,  wages,  taxation,  tariff,  etc.  This  book  is  expected  to  pre- 
sent a  consistent  body  of  economic  doctrine,  with  its  practical  applica- 
tion to  modern  conditions,  affording  a  rational  basis  for  economic  states- 
manship, by  which  industrial  reform  can  be  promoted  without  revolution, 
the  welfare  of  the  laboring  classes  advanced  without  increasing  paternal- 
ism, invading  the  rights  of  property,  or  restricting  the  freedom  of  individ- 
ual enterprise. 


m  accepting  tnis  responsiDiiity,  nowever,  ic  was 
with  the  expectation  that  the  work  was  far  advanced 
toward  completion.     But,  to  my  surprise,  and  that  of 


PREFACE. 


In  submitting  this  book  to  the  public,  duty  to  the 
dead  requires  that  its  origin  be  told.  The  central 
thought  contained  in  the  following  pages  and  the  first 
effort  at  its  statement  belongs  to  Ira  Steward,  of  Bos- 
ton, the  history  of  whose  life  is  the  history  of  the  labor 
movement  in  Massachusetts.  For  more  than  twenty 
years  he  was  the  real  leader  and  inspirer  of  the  labor 
movement  in  that  State  ;  and  to  him,  more  than  to 
any  other  person,  we  are  indebted  for  the  Massachusetts 
Labor  Bureau — the  first,  and  to-day  the  best,  institu- 
tion of  its  kind  in  the  world. 

He  was  the  pioneer  of  the  short-hour  movement  in 
this  country,  and  after  years  devoted  to  the  further- 
ance of  its  claims,  he  decided  to  write  what  he  termed 
**  a  statement  of  the  labor  question."  While  thus  en- 
gaged, the  present  writer  made  his  acquaintance,  from 
which  grew  a  friendship  ripening  into  a  complete  unity 
of  thought  and  purpose. 

But  Mr.  Steward's  work  was  not  destined  to  comple- 
tion at  his  hands.  After  a  protracted  illness  he  died, 
March  13,  1883.  When  it  became  evident  that  he 
could  not  recover,  he  made  a  special  request,  strongly 
re-enforced  by  his  friends,  that  I  should  complete  his 
unfinished  task. 

In  accepting  this  responsibility,  however,  it  was 
with  the  expectation  that  the  work  was  far  advanced 
toward  completion.     But,  to  my  surprise,  and  that  of 


vi  PREFACE, 

his  friends,  his  papers  when  examined  were  found  to 
consist  of  disconnected  matter,  made  up  of  more  or 
less  extended  notes,  none  of  which  were  in  a  condi- 
tion to  be  used.  Hence  it  became  necessary  for  me  to 
work  out  the  whole  subject  anew. 

Accordingly,  while  the  central  thought  presented  in 
this  book  belongs  to  Ira  Steward,  its  development  and 
presentation  is  the  work  of  the  present  writer.f^y  the 
central  thought  I  mean  the  idea  that  the  standard  of  liv- 
ing is  the  basis  of  wages,  and  that  social  opportunity,  or 
more  leisure  for  the  masses,  as  expressed  in  less  hours 
of  labor y  is  the  natural  means  for  increasing  wages  and 
promoting  progress.  "J  But  this  thought  was  not  de- 
veloped into  any  theory  of  wages  or  progress,  nor  was 
it  formulated  at  all  ;  neither  had  he  collected  any  his- 
torical or  statistical  data.  Indeed,  his  contribution 
was  conveyed  to  the  writer  by  verbal  statement  rather 
than  by  anything  found  in  his  writings. 

I  make  this  explanation  here,  that  Mr.  Steward  may 
not  be  held  responsible  for  the  defects  of  my  work. 
Whatever  there  is  of  value  in  the  original  thought  I 
reverently  lay  at  his  feet,  and  all  the  imperfections  of 
its  presentation  I  take  to  myself. 

Although  my  practical  experience  with  industrial 
affairs  has  been  very  extensive,  and  my  opportunities 
for  observation  have  been  exceptionally  good  both 
in  Europe  and  in  this  country,  and  although  I  have 
for  twenty  years  been  a  close  student  of  economic 
questions,  it  was  not  until  I  undertook  this  task  that 
I  began  to  see  the  subtlety,  complexity,  and  vastness 
of  the  industrial  problem. 

In  order  to  treat  the  subject  inductively,  I  made  an 
extensive  investigation  into  the  rise  and  development 
of  the  wages  system,  and  I  soon  found  that  the  labor 


PREFACE.  VU 

question  is  not  a  simple  detached  subject  that  can  be 
arbitrarily  settled  by  statutory  enactments  fixing 
wages,  profits,  interest,  money,  etc.,  but  that  it  is  an 
integral  part  of  the  science  of  social  economics ;  and 
that  all  consideration  of  the  subject  by  English  and 
continental  writers,  as  well  as  American,  has  hitherto 
failed  to  recognize  the  true  economic  relation  the  ma- 
terial condition  of  the  masses  sustains  to  industrial 
and  social  progress  ;  and  also  that  the  question  of 
wages  has  been  very  superficially  and  often  flippantly 
treated. 

Therefore  it  became  clear  to  me  that  no  adequate 
treatment  of  the  labor  problem  is  possible  without  a 
review  of  the  entire  question,  and  in  many  respects  a 
reconstruction  of  the  accepted  doctrines  of  economics. 
This  task  I  found  myself  logically  forced  to  undertake, 
the  results  of  which  I  am  now  ready  to  submit  to  the 
public. 

At  this  point  I  met  with  a  new  difficulty  :  I  have 
what  will  make  a  seven  or  eight  hundred  page  book — 
too  large  for  one  volume.  But  it  is  naturally  divided 
into  two  parts,  both  of  which  are  complete  regarding 
the  subjects  to  which  they  relate.  One  is  devoted  to 
the  much-misunderstood  question  of  wages  and  its 
economic  and  practical  relation  to  social  reform.  The 
other,  to  a  presentation  of  the  principles  of  social 
economics.  It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  acknowledge 
that  it  was  by  the  suggestion  of  Parke  Godwin,  LL.D., 
with  whose  invaluable  assistance  and  criticism  I  have 
been  favored  throughout  this  work,  that  I  have  de- 
cided to  publish  it  in  two  books  in  the  following  order. 

The  first — the  present  volume — deals  with  the  burn- 
ingquestionof  the  day  upon  the  basis  of  broad  economic 
principles  and  in  a  direct,  practical  manner  that  can  be 


viii  PREFACE. 

understood  and  appreciated  by  the  laboring  classes. 
In  this  work  I  have  endeavored  to  discuss  the  wages 
problem  upon  fundamental  principles  which  underlie 
industrial  progress,  not  merely  under  the  wages  sys- 
tem, but  in  all  the  (stages  of  social  evolution.  The 
next  book  will  be  devoted  to  the  consideration  of  the 
principles  of  social  economics,  including  the  princi- 
ples of  social  progress  in  general,  the  principles  of 
economic  production,  economic  distribution,  and  the 
principles  of  practical  statesmanship  or  applied  eco- 
nomics. 
New  York,  October,  1887. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

PAGE 

Problem  of  the  hour i 

Poverty  more  dangerous  than  formerly i 

The  laborer  helpless  when  discharged. 2 

Laborer's  social  character  changed 3 

Poverty  dangerous  to  the  wealthy  classes 4 

Popular  remedies  for  poverty 5 

True  basis  for  social  reform 5 

Production  and  distribution,  erroneous  views  regarding 6 

Economically  inseparable 7 

Productive  wealth  and  consumable  wealth 7 

Concentration  of  the  former 8 

Implies  wide  distribution  of  the  latter 9 

High  wages  induce  large  production 9 

A  chief  cause  of  confusion 10 

The  practical  problem  stated 1 1 

Object  of  present  work 11 

Outline  of  Part  I 12 

Outline  of  Part  II 13 

Outline  of  Part  III 14 


PART  I. 
Increasing  Production  :    Its  Law  and  Cause. 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE  RELATION  OF  LABOR  TO  PRODUCTION. 

Labor  and  the  creation  of  wealth 15 

Fallacy  of  popular  idea  concerning 16 

Capital  not  ' '  stored-up  labor"  labor  defined 17 

The  perishablenesss  of  labor 18 


X  CONTENTS, 

PACK 

The  laborer's  share  of  the  product 19 

Capital  does  not  rob  labor,  but  aids  it 20 

Capitals  the  largest  where  wages  are  the  highest 21 

Society  progresses  as  human  labor  is  lessened 22 

CHAPTER  II. 

INCREASED      CONSUMPTION      BY      THE      MASSES     THE     REAL     CAUSE  OF 
IMPROVED   MACHINERY. 

False  view  of  the  employing  class 23 

The  laborer's  prosperity  the  basis  of  the  capitalist's  success 24 

Capital  used  only  when  cheaper  than  labor 25 

Cheaper  only  when  it  yields  increasing  returns 26 

Low  wages  mean  hand  labor  and  dear  products 27 

High  wages  promote  the  use  of  machinery  and  lowers  prices. ...  28 

No  use  for  capital  in  low-wage  countries 29 

High  wages  stimulate  the  use  of  machinery  in  two  ways 30 

Arbitrary  rise  of  real  wages  impossible 31 

Natural  rise  of  wages  always  graduaF 31 

Effect  of  rising  wages  upon  profits 32 

No  permanent  disadvantage  to  the  employer 33 

Rise  of  real  wages  the  basis  of  social  progress 34 


PART  II. 

The  Law  of  Wages  Stated  and   Historically  Estab- 
lished. 

CHAPTER  I. 

POPULAR    THEORIES    OF    WAGES    CONSIDERED. 

Section  \.—  Tke  Wages-Fund  Theory. 

The  doctrine  stated* 35 

Generally  accepted  in  the  United  States 36 

It  is  the  doctrine  of  low  wages 37 

Necessary  part  of  the  theory  that  "  profits  rise  as  wages  fall" 37 

Accepted  by  both  laborers  and  employers 38 

Monopolies,  tariffs,  and  strikes  all  based  upon  it 38 

Thornton's  attacks  and  Mill's  conversion 39 

Professor  Cairnes  reaffirms  and  defends  the  doctrine 40 


CONTENTS.  XI 

PACK 

Cairnes's  defence  consid-ered. 41 

A  learned  effort  at  twisting  terms 43 

The  theory  at  best  only  a  truism 44 

Wages  not  paid  from  capital 45 

More  paid  in  wages  than  any  wages-fund  contains 46 

Wages  are  paid  out  of  present  product 47 

Labor  always  furnished  on  credit 48 

The  doctrine  inadequate  if  true 49 

Wages  not  governed  by  supply  and  demand 50 

The  facts  all  against  the  theory. 51 

The  failure  of  the  doctrine 52 

Section  II. — Francis  A.   Walker  s   Theory. 

His  theory  stated 53 

Wages  the  leavings  of  rent,  interest,  and  profits 54 

Wages  paid  before  profits  and  rent 55 

Destroyed  by  self-contradiction 56 

Production  not  the  measure  of  wages 57 

Why  production  is  increased 58 

Less  complete  and  more  inconsistent  than  the  English  theory  ...  59 

Section  III. — Henry  George'' s  T/ieory. 

His  theory  stated  in  his  own  words 6a 

Its  logical  sequence 61 

Necessary  part  of  his  scheme 62 

Wages  always  the  lowest  where  land  is  free 63 

The  doctrine  everywhere  controverted  by  facts 65 

A  delusive  presentation  of  the  case 66 

Wages  not  fixed  by  the  margin  of  cultivation 67 

Shown  by  the  facts  in  every  industry 68 

The  theory  historically  baseless 69 

Wages  nowhere  obey  Mr.  George's  so-called  law 70 


CHAPTER  II. 

WAGES   AND   THE   LAW   OF   WAGES. 

Section  I. —  Wages  Defined. 

Scientific  tests  of  the  true  law  of  wages 7I 

Popular  definitions  of  wages 73 

The  true  definition t  # .  •  1     73 


xii  CONTENTS. 

Section  II. — Real  and  Nominal  Wages. 

P/GB  y 

Real  wages  and  nominal  wages  defined 74  v 

Social  well-being  indicated  only  by  real  wages 75    •/ 

Section  III. —  The  Economic  Law  of  Wages. 

Three  industrial  states  :  savagery,  slavery,  and  wages 76 

The  similarity  of  the  slavery  and  wages  systems 77 

The  difference  in  the  two  systems 78 

Labor  subject  to  the  law  of  prices 79 

The  economic  law  of  prices. 80 

The  law  of  prices  illustrated 81 

It  fully  explains  the  phenomena 82 

The  law  of  prices  applied  to  labor 83 

The  Order  of  economic  movement 84 

Arbitrary  rise  of  real  wages  impossible 85  ^ 

Mr,  Brassey's  experience  in  India 86 

Mistaken  view  of  high  wages  by  employing  class 87 

Section  IV. — Standard  of  Living. 

Standard  of  living  defined.     The  family  constitutes  the  basis 88 

The  true  theory  of  wages 89     w 

The  * '  iron  law"  of  wages  fallacy 90 

Mistaken  view  of  Lassalle  and  others  regarding 91 

Inversion  of  economic  relations 92 

Wages  fixed  by  the  dearest  laborers 93 

Why  foreigners  can  save  money  here  and  not  at  home 94 

Using  and  not  saving  wealth  promotes  progress 95 

Section  V. —  The  Cost  of  Living. 

How  the  cost  of  living  is  determined 96 

Prices  affect  nominal  not  real  wages 97  / 

The  law  as  universal  as  wage-paying  conditions 98 


CHAPTER  III. 

similarity     of     wages     in    ASIA   AND     EUROPE    IN   THE    THIRTEENTH 
CENTURY. 

Standard  and  cost  of  living  in  India 100 

The  rate  of  wages  in  India loi 

Buchanan  and  Brassey's  experience 102 


CONTENTS.  xui 

PAGE 

Mode  of  living  in  China 103 

Wages  in  India  and  China  eight  and  ten  cents  per  day 104 

Style  of  living  in  Asia  and  England 105 

Habitation  of  English  laborer  in  the  thirteenth  century 106 

Wages  in  England  nine  cents  per  day 107 

Difference  in  the  progress  in  England  and  Asia  since  1300 108 

Both  governed  by  the  same  law 109 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    RISE   OF    REAL  WAGES  IN  ENGLAND  IN  THE  FOURTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Section  I.—  Why  Real  Wages  Rose  aftey  the  Famine  in  13 15-21. 

The  first  rise  of  wages  in  England,  errors  regarding no 

Inferring  facts  to  sustain  a  bad  theory in 

Supply  and  demand  fail  to  explain  the  phenomena 112 

Thorold  Rogers's  deductions  controverted  by  his  own  data 113 

Unemployed  labor  and  increased  wages  not  incompatible 113 

The  phenomena  easily  explained  by  the  true  theory  of  wages. ...  114 

Why  wages  did  not  fall  with  the  fall  of  prices  after  1321 115 

Rise  of  real  wages  result  of  social  causes 116 

Social  power  of  the  free  cities 117 

Their  influence  in  obtaining  the  "  Magna  Charta" 118 

Change  in  the  laborer's  social  condition 119 

Effect  upon  his  wants  and  character 120 

Transformed  the  rise  of  nominal  into  a  rise  of  real  wages 120 

Section  II. — Black  Death  not  the  Real  Cause  of  the  Rise  of  Wages. 

The  black  death  pestilence  in  1349 • 121 

Real  wages  not  promoted  by  famines  and  pestilence. 122 

Failure  of  the  "  scarcity  of  labor"  theory 123 

Why  wages  only  rose  to  fivepence  a  day  in  1350-51 124 

Rise  of  wages  in  1350  due  to  the  same  causes  as  in  1321   125 

Increase  of  the  laborer's  Wants — chimneys,  glass  windows,  etc. . .  126 

The  new  demand  made  higher  wages  necessary 127 

Efforts  of  Parliament  to  prevent  the  rise  of  wages 128 

The  "  Statute  of  Laborers" 129 

Its  failure  to  stop  the  rise  of  wages 130 


/ 


/ 


xiv  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   RISE    OF    REAL    WAGES    ARRESTED    BEFORE     I45O.      HOW    IT  WAS 
BROUGHT  ABOUT. 

PAGE 

Statute  of  laborers  not  enforced,  increased  penalties 132 

Statutes  of  1360  and  1363  fixing  the  diet  and  apparel 133 

Law  limiting  social  mobility,  fatal  blow  to  social  opportunity 135 

The  law  of  1388  rigidly  enforced 136 

Means  for  cutting  off  social  opportunity  completed  (1406) 137 

The  rise  of  real  wages  arrested  before  1444 138  v 

Wages  as  fixed  by  the  statutes  of  1444,  1496-1514 139 

Price  of  wheat  in  1444,  1496-1514 140 

Decline  of  chartered  towns,  growth  of  the  open  towns 141 

Abolition  of  the  guilds.     The  act  of  settlement 142 

True  cause  overlooked  by  historians  and  economists 143 

Blunders  of  Henry  VHI.  merely  the  incident 144 


CHAPTER  VI. 

MOVEMENT   OF   WAGES    FXOM    THE     FIFTEENTH    TO     THE    NINETEENTH 

CENTURY. 

Section  I. —  Why  Nominal  Wages  do  not  Rise  and  Fall  with  the  Rise 
and  Fall  of  Prices. 


Rise  in  nominal  but  not  in  real  wages 145 

Perishableness  of  labor.     Sellers  of,  numerous  and  necessitous..   146 
Wages  move  slower  than  prices.     The  last  to  rise  or  fall 147 

Section    \\.— Wages   and  Prices   in   the    Sixteenth    Century— Effect 
of  Henry   VIII. 's  Depreciation  of  the  Currency. 

Necessity  of  large  generalizations 148 

Rogers's  pessimism  the  cause  of  much  error ...   149 

Comparison  of  special  dates  misleading 1 50 

General  averages  the  only  reliable  data 151 

Full  table  of  prices  and  wages  1520-82 152 

Average  price  of  wheat  and  labor  1 520-82 153 

Wages  rose  twenty-seven  and  wheat  twenty-eight  per  cent 154 

Wages  fixed  according  to  the  price  of  bread — "  gallon  loaf"  the  basis  155 
Cost  of  living  the  final  standard 156 


J 


CONTENTS.  XV 

Section  III. —  Wages  and  Prices  during  the  Seventeenth^  Eighteenth, 
and  Nineteenth  Centuries. 

PAGE 

Average  price  of  wheat  for  the  seventeenth  century 156 

Rate  of  wages  and  price  of  wheat  for  the  eighteenth  century 157 

Dawn  of  the  factory  system.     Increased  social  intercourse 159 

Real  wages  of  artisans  began  to  rise  again 159  y 

Why  agricultural  wages  did  not  rise  in  the  same  ratio 160  ^ 

CHAPTER  VII. 

UNIVERSALITY    OF   THE   LAW   OF   WAGES. 

Section  I. —  Wages  and  the  Cost  of  Living  in  Different  Countries, 

Causes  that  affect  the  cost  of  living 162 

Wages  higher  in  large  than  in  small  towns.     The  law  universal. .  163 

Trades-union  prices  unconsciously  based  upon  it 164 

Wages  and  cost  of  living  in  different  countries 165 

Wages  in  different  industries.     Why  vary  in  the  same  locality. . .  167 

Section  II. —  The  Income  of  the  Family  not  Increased  by  the  Wages  of 
the    Wife  and  Children. 

The  man's  wages  fall  as  the  earnings  of  wife  and  children  increase.  168 

Wages  of  men  lower  in  factories  than  in  other  industries 169 

Wage-earners  and  cost  of  living  in  65  industries  compared 170 

Women's  wages  fixed  by  the  same  law 172 

Why  they  are  lower  than  men's 173 

Wages  and  cost  of  living  of  women 174 

Section  III. —  The  Theory  Further  Sustained  by  Dr.  EngeFs  Law  of 

Expenditures. 

Dr.  Engel's  law  of  expenditures  stated 175 

Its  logical  sequence.     Wants  and  wages  in  different  countries... .  176 

Wages  the  highest  where  social  wants  are  the  largest 177 

The  evidence  ample  and  conclusive 178 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

WAGES  UNDER   PIECE-WORK. 

"  Piece-work"  a  delusive  expression 179 

"  Day-work"  wages  the  basis  of  "  piece-work"  prices 181 


xvi  CONTENTS. 

TACK 

Historical  basis  of  the  law 182 

"  Piece-work"  prices  higher  in  large  cities 183 

"  Piece-work"  prices  fall,  day  wages  rise  as  machinery  is  improved.  184 

Sliding  scale  of  ' '  piece-work"  prices 185 

"  Piece-work"  prices  and  "  day-work"  wages  obey  the  same  law.  186 


CHAPTER  IX. 

ULTIMATE  ANALYSES   OF   THE   LAW    OF   WAGES. 
Section  I. — //ow  the  Standard  of  Living  is  Determined. 

Standard  of  living,  wants  the  basis  of 187   y 

Economic  wants  defined 188 

Man's  economic  wants  the  incentive  to  all  productive  effort 189 

Production  governed  by  consumption 190 

Section  H. — Social   Wants,  How  Determined. 

Man,  a  twofold  being,  has  physical  wants  and  social  wants 190 

The  power  of  habit  universal 191 

It  affects  all  classes  on  all  lines 192 

Social  influence  of  custom.     Observed  by  economists 193 

True  regulating  principle  in  the  law  of  wages T94   \J 

True  test  of  economic  soundness 195 

Section  III. —  The  Influences  which  Determine  Social  Character. 

Man's  state  at  birth 195 

His  inherent  and  acquired  wants 196 

Internal  and  external  forces— influence  of 197 

Easy  to  do  as  others  do 198 

Social  influences  irresistible.     The  power  of  ostracism 199 

Fixity  of  habit  the  guaranty  of  social  permanence 200 

How  new  wants  are  created 201 

Social  intercourse  the  basis  of  new  wants 202 

Social  wants  the  basis  of  character 203 

Social  character  the  basis  of  wages 203 


CONTENTS.  xvii 

PART  III. 

Principles  and  Methods  of  Social  Reform. 
CHAPTER  I. 

POPULAR   REMEDIES    FOR    SOCIAL   EVILS. 

Section  I. — Industrial  Progress    the    Cause   not  the    Consequence   of 
Political  Freedom. 

PAGS 

Political  freedom  the  effect  of  industrial  progress 205 

Popular  inversion  of  the  order  of  progress 206 

The  economic  condition  of  woman 207 

Her  social  disadvantages  the  cause  of  her  low  wages 208 

Drunkenness  a  social  disease 209 

The  saloon  competes  with  the  home 210 

The  saloon  recedes  as  the  home  improves 211 

Section  H. — Rent,  Profit,    Tax,  and  Money  Reforms. 

Basic  error  of  these  reforms 212 

The  economic  function  of  money.     Scientific  basis  necessary 213 

Currency  reform,  not  a  basic  social  question 214 

Section  HI. — Inadequacy  of  Socialistic  Methods. 

The  true  function  of  the  social  philosopher 215 

The  mistake  of  idealizing.     Social  law  the  true  basis  of  reform. . .  216 

Socialistic  industry  impracticable — History  of 217 

Profit-sharing  enterprises.     Godin's  and  Leclaire's  success 218 

If  general,  it  would  reduce  wages 219 

By  same  law  that  children's  earnings  reduce  men's  wages 220 

Claims  of  the  State  Socialist  221 

The  post-office  experiment  not  a  financial  success 222 

Its  successful  features  not  due  to  State  control 223 

Specialists  required  to  conduct  complex  industries 224 

Public  officials  seldom  experts 225 

Socialistic  reforms  based  upon  a  mistaken  premise 226 

Sound  sense  of  the  trades-unionists 227 

Poverty  not  due  to  distribution. , 228 

Greater  production  the  only  remedy  for  poverty 229 


xviii  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  II. 

HOW   TO   ENLARGE  THE   SOCIAL  OPPORTUNITIES   OF   THE   MASSES. 

PAGE 

The  first  question  to  be  settled 230 

Social  opportunity  defined 231 

The  true  economic  fulcrum 232 

The  basic  principle  of  social  reform  233 

More  leisure  for  the  masses  the  first  condition 234 

Leisure  and  idleness  explained  and  defined 235 

Enforced  idleness  dangerous  to  society 236 

Helplessness  of  the  discharged  laborer 237 

Cause  of  enforced  idleness 239 


CHAPTER   III. 

ECONOMIC   EFFECT  OF   REDUCING  THE   HOURS  OF   LABOR. 

Section  I.  —  The  General  Situation  Stated  and  the  Line  of  Opposition 
Indicated. 

Reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor  the  first  step 240 

Employers'  opposition  due  to  inverted  economics 241 

The  attitude  of  the  press 242 

Section  II. —  The  Principles  which  should  Govern  the   Reduction  of 
the  Hours  of  Labor. 

Less  hours  sought  for  uneconomic  reasons 244 

The  social  basis  for  reducing  the  hours  of  labor 245 

The  principle  stated 246 

Absurd  objections.     Recapitulation  of  the  arguments 247 

Principle  must  be  scientifically  applied 248 

Section  III. — How  much   can    the   Hours   of  Labor  be  Safely   and 
Wisely  Reduced? 

Application  of  the  principle  under  wage-conditions 249 

Hours  of  labor  in  different  countries 250 

Average  working  day  in  those  countries 251 

Section  IV .—Direct  and  Immediate  Effect  of  an  Eight-Hour  System. 

Number  working  for  wages  in  the  United  States 252 

Effect  of  an  eight-hour  system  on  enforced  idleness 253 

Number  of  unemployed  in  the  United  States  (1886) 254 


CONTENTS.  XIX 

PAGE 

Unemployed  in  European  countries 255 

Effect  upon  wages  if  adopted  only  in  this  country 256 

Its  adoption  in  England,  France,  and  Germany  also 256 

Number  of  working  children  under  fifteen  years  of  age 257 

Its  effect  on  the  general  marl^et 258 

Section  V. —  The  Permanent  Economic  Effects. 

The  permanent  effect  the  important  one 259 

The  social  opportunity  eight  hours  will  create 260 

Its  influence  upon  the  social  character  of  the  masses 260 

Variation  in  wages — sphere  of  their  oscillations 261 

Influence  of  less  hours  upon  children 262 

Social  effect  of  half-time  schools 263 

High  wages  and  large  productions  mean  low  prices 264 

Less  hours  mean  higher  wages 265 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   EFFECT   OF   AN   EIGHT-HOUR   LAW   UPON   PROFITS. 

Evil  influence  of  the  popular  theory 266 

A  plausible  error 267 

Fall  of  wages  not  a  rise  of  profits ....  269 

A  rise  of  wages  beneficial  to  all  classes 270 

Short  hours  not  injurious  to  capital 271 

The  adoption  of  the  measure  should  be  general 272 

It  should  be  gradual.     Duty  of  employers 273 

CHAPTER  V. 

WHAT   WOULD  BE   ITS   EFFECT   UPON   RENT  ? 

Rent  subject  to  the  same  law  as  profits 274 

Poverty  of  the  poor  not  due  to  the  wealth  of  the  rich 275 

Military  and  industrial  states  of  society 276 

Rome  an  uneconomic  state 277 

Rising  rents  incompatible  with  falling  wages 278 

High  rents  always  imply  high  wages 279 

This  principle  universal 280 

Movement  of  rent  in  England  since  1689 281 

Land-owners  richer  and  products  cheaper  with  high  wages 282 

Redistribution  is  not  reform.     Progress  must  include  all  classes  .  283 

Less  hours  beneficial  to  all  classes 284 


7 


XX  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

FEASIBILITY   OF   SHORT-HOUR   LEGISLATION. 

Section     I. — History    of    Factory    Legislation     in     England  from 
1800  to  1840. 

PACK 

Short-hour  legislation  not  an  untried  experiment 285 

England  the  cradle  of  the  factory  system 286 

Condition  of  factory  operatives  in  1800 287 

Worked  fourteen  hours  a  day  and  Sundays 288 

The  first  factory  bill  in  1802 288 

Opposition  of  the  manufacturers. 289 

The  use  of  steam  as  motive  power 290 

It  enabled  the  "  masters"  to  evade  the  law 291 

Twelve-hour  law  for  all  under  sixteen  years,  1819 292 

Eleven  and  a  half  hour  law,  1825— eleven-hour  law,  1831 293 

Bitter  opposition  of  employers — their  doleful  prophecies 294 

Child-labor  law  of  1835  provided  two  hours  a  day  schooling 295 

Efforts  to  repeal  the  law  and  counter-movement  to  extend  it 296 

Victory  for  the  operatives  in  1839 297 

Section  W.— History  of  the  Half-Time  Law  of  1844  and  the   Ten- 
Hour  Law  of  1847. 

Lord  Ashley's  leadership  in  Parliament 297 

Demand  for  a  ten-hour  law.    A  government  compromise  in  1843.  298 

Resulted  in  a  half-time  school  law 299 

Its  social  and  educational  influence.    Ten-hour  bill  again  pushed.  .300 

Increasing  opposition  of  the  manufacturers 300 

Bitter  opposition  of  John  Bright  and  Free-traders 301 

Lord  Ashley's  great  speech 302 

The  ten-hour  bill  adopted  in  1847 303 

CHAPTER  VII. 

PHENOMENAL     EFFECT     OF      THE      TEN-HOUR      LAW      AND      HALF-TIME 
SCHOOLS   IN   ENGLAND. 

Section  \.—  The  Striking  Success  of  these  Laws  Converted  Sir  James 
Graham,  Mr.  Roebuck,  and  Other  Opponents, 

Effect  of  this  opportunity-creating  legislation 304 

Improved  condition  of  the  laboring  classes 305 

Increased  wages,  improved  health,  and  greater  intelligence 306 


CONTENTS.  XXI 

PAGE 

Testimony  of  Chief  Factory  Inspector  Baker 306 

Conversion  of  Mr.  Roebuck 307 

His  speech  announcing  it  in  the  House  of  Commons 308 

Sir  James  Graham's  conversion 308 

His  candid  recantation  in  Parliament.    Mr.  Gladstone's  testimony.  309 

Its  economic  soundness  admitted  by  economists 310 

The  nine  and  a  half  hour  law 311 

Section  H. — Social  Progress  Shown  by  the  Rise  of  Wages,  the  Fall 

of  Prices y  and  the  Diminution  of  Illiteracy,  Pauperism, 

and  Crime. 


Social  well-being  of  the  masses,  how  indicated 3 

Percentages  not  a  safe  basis  for  wages  comparisons 312 

Rise  of  wages  in  England  since  1850.    Mr.  GifBn's  estimates 313 

Manchester  Chamber  of  Commerce  returns 314 

Leone  Levi's  estimates 315 

Mulhall's  calculations— Average  rise  since  1850  $2.10  per  week  . .  316 

Fall  of  prices  since  1850 317 

Progress  of  intelligence  among  the  masses 318 

Decrease  of  crime  since  1850 3^9 

Decrease  in  the  consumption  of  alcoholic  drinks 320 

Decrease  in  the  use  of  beer  among  the  laborers 321 

Decrease  of  pauperism 323 

The  improvement  not  due  to  free  trade 324 

Its  good  influence  not  confined  to  England 325 

How  it  prevented  the  government  from  siding  with  the  South 326 

Ten-hour  law  in  Massachusetts 327 

More  wages  for  less  hours  than  in  any  other  State 328 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

RELATIVE   INDUSTRIAL   PROGRESS   IN   ENGLAND   AND  OTHER   COUNTRIES 
SINCE    1850. 

Section  I. — England  and  Continental  Countries  Compared. 

How  much  of  England's  progress  is  due  to  short  hours 329 

Actual  increase  in  wages  in  the  various  countries 330 

Rise  of  wages  in  France  and  Germany  since  1850 331 

Rise  of  wages  in  England,  France,  and  Germany  compared 332 

Movement  of  prices  in  the  various  countries 333 

Fall  greater  in  England  than  in  other  countries 334 


„/ 


xxii  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Agricultural  wages  in  different  countries 335 

Use  of  steam,  wages,  and  the  cost  of  labor  in  various  countries. .  336 

Productive  power  of  various  nations 337 

Increase  of  the  income  per  capita  in  different  countries 338 

Superiority  of  in  England 339 

Cost  in  labor  of  food,  clothes,  rent,  and  taxes  in  various  countries.  340 

Increase  in  education  of  children  compared 341 

Number  of  letters  sent  through  mails  per  capita 341 

Crime  in  different  countries 342 

Pauperism  in  various  countries 343 

Progress  of  political  freedom 344 


Section  II. — Industrial  Progress  in  England  and  the   United  States 
Compared. 

Political  institutions  not  proof  against  poverty 344 

Industrial  depressions 345 

Rise  of  real  wages  in  England  and  this  country 346 

Prices  in  the  United  States  since  1850 347 

Estimates  of  Mulhall,  Wright,  and  United  States  census 348 

Use  of  aggregates  misleading 349 

Income  per  capita  the  only  safe  basis 350 

Increased  earnings  per  capita  in  England  and  America 351 

School  attendance  in  the  two  countries 352 

Crime  in  England  and  America ...   353 

Growth  of  political  freedom 354 


CHAPTER  IX. 

SOCIAL    AND    POLITICAL    NECESSITY     OF    AN    EIGHT-HOUR    AND    HALF- 
TIME   SYSTEM. 

The  proposition  feasible 355 

Lack  of  progress  not  due  to  our  political  institutions 355 

Social  character  the  barometer  of  progress 356 

The  wages  system  favorable  to  progress 357 

Misconception  of  the  law  of  wages 358 

Mistaken  industrial  policy 359 

Its  tendency  to  limit  social  opportunity 360 

Our  foreign  population  indifferent  to  education 361 

Children  driven  into  the  mills.     They  miss  the  common  school. . .  362 
The  per  cent  of  foreigners  in  the  various  occupations 363 


CONTENTS.  XXIH 

PACK 

Seventy  per  cent  of  all  outside  of  agriculture 364 

Not  opposed  to  immigration.    More  social  opportunities  needed..  365 

High  social  character  our  only  protection 366 

Long  hours  and  unwholesome  hovels  prevent  it 366 

The  truck  system 367 

Operatives'  homes  indescribable 368 

Condition  as  stated  in  official  reports 369 

Owned  by  corporations — Operatives  compelled  to  live  in  them  . .  370 

City  tenement-houses 37^ 

Make  social  and  moral  development  impossible.    372 

Cheap  voters  furnish  an  excuse  for  despotism 373 

Lamentable  lack  of  statesmanship — mainly  political  quackery 374 

Social  character  must  rise,  or  the  Republic  will  fall 375 

More  social  opportunity  for  the  masses  our  only  safety 37^ 

Leisure  the  basis  for  social  opportunity . .    37^ 

Less  hours  of  labor  the  first  step  toward  leisure 37^ 

Eight  hours  and  half-time  schools  a  social  and  political  necessity.  377 

Summary  and  Conclusion , 378 


By  common  consent  the  industrial  question  has 
become  the  problem  of  the  hour.  There  never  was  a 
time  when  the  demands  of  the  labor  question  were  so 
urgent  nor  when  the  failure  to  adequately  meet  those 
demands  by  a  scientific  solution  involved  so  much 
danger  to  the  well-being  and  progress  of  society  as  it 
does  to-day.  Not  because  there  is  more  poverty  or 
worse  degrees  of  it  in  the  world  than  in  former  times, 
but  because  it  is  more  intense  in  kind  and  dangerous 
in  character. 

fThat  the  material  and  social  condition  of  the  masses 
has  been  greatly  improved  with  the  progress  of  soci- 
ety, especially  since  the  phenomenal  increase  in  the 
production  of  wealth  by  the  use  of  machinery,  no  one 
will  deny  who  is  acquainted  with  industrial  history, 
notwithstanding  the  cry  raised  by  those  who  have 
essayed  the  task  of  social  reform  that  **  the  poor  are 
growing  poorer,"  and  that  the  laborer  is  no  better  off 
than  he  was  in  the  middle  agesJ 

But  while  it  is  not  true  that  "  the  poor  are  growing 
poorer,"  nor  that  the  economic  condition  of  the  laborer 
is  worse  than  it  was  in  the  middle  ages  or  at  any  pre- 
vious time,fit  is  unquestionably  true  that  poverty  is 
more  inimical  to  society  to-day,  more  dangerous  to 
social  order,  freedom,  and  democratic  institutions  than 
ever  before.! 

-  J  2 


9  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

Nor  is  the  reason  for  this  difficult  to  understand  if 
we  remembenthe  changed  social  condition  of  the  work- 
ingman.  In  the  middle  ages  he  wasa.serf,  inseparable 
from  the  lord's  estate  ;  his  wants  were  few  and  meagre, 
being  practically  limited  to  his  physical  necessities. 
When  he  emerged  from  serfdom  into  wagedom  he 
began  to  obtain,  though  slowly,  more  wealth.  His 
wages  gradually  rose  from  twopence  a  day  in  the 
thirteenth  century  to  five  shillings  a  day  in  the  nine- 
teenth. With  this  increase  in  wages  has  come  in- 
creased mobility,  larger  social  opportunities,  and  con- 
sequently a  more  highly  developed  and  more  sensitive 
character.\ 

Again,  as  a  necessary  part  of  this  industrial  differ- 
entiation and  social  progress  he  ceased  to  be  a  ward 
of  his  master's  household,  and  became  simply  a  seller 
of  service.  By  this  changi  he  gradually  became 
a  fractional  part  of  a  highly  complex  system  of  in- 
dustry, in  which  he  is  an  inseparable  and  almost  auto- 
matic portion  of  a  vast  machine,  apart  from  which 
he  is  practically  useless  as  a  producer.  Conse- 
quently, when  the  factory  stops  or  he  is  discharged, 
from  whatever  cause,  he  is  utterly  helpless  to  procure 
means  for  a  living,  because  as  an  isolated  laborer  he 
has  lost  the  power  to  employ  himself.  When  that 
point  is  reached,  which  the  prevalence  of  enforced 
idleness  shows  is  painfully  frequent,  the  laborer  of  to- 
day is  not  only  more  helpless  but  he  is  more  dangerous 
to  societv  than  were  the  laborers  of  the  thirteenth 
century.  I 

When  adversity  overtook  the  mediaeval  laborer, 
which  was  very  frequently  the  case,  he  had  the  prod- 
uct of  a  patch  of  ground  or  the  **  offal  from  his  mas- 
ter's table" — all  of  which  he  gave  up  because  he  could 


THE  MEDIEVAL  AND  MODERN  LABORER.         ^ 

obtain  more  wealth  and  social  freedom  by  working  for 
wages.;  This  has  done  a  thousand  times  more  for  him 
than  apy  form  of  paternal  industry  could  ever  have 
done.  )  He  has  been  revolutionized  in  character,  pass- 
ing from  a  simple  life  of  few  wants  and  necessities  to 
a  varied  and  complex  one,  where  he  is  more  sensitive  to 
social  disadvantages  and  more  sensible  of  his  power  as 
a  social  factor.J  The  product  of  a  little  patch  of  land, 
which  would  have  satisfied  all  his  wants  in  the  thir- 
teenth century,  when  he  lived  in  a  mud  hut  without 
window,  chimney,  or  furniture,  would  not  now  be 
thought  of,  much  less  endured,  under  any  circum- 
stances. The  social  sensibility  of  the  modern  laborer 
is  such  that  it  would  not  only  be  impossible  for  him  to 
accept  "  offal  from  his  master's  table,"  but  he  can- 
not, without  incurring  contempt,  accept  pauper  aid, 
though  it  be  four  times  as  great  in  amount  as  the 
maximum  mediaeval  wages.  And  to  quietly  He  down 
and  die  of  starvation  he  will  not,  as  he  ought  not  to 
do  !  He  has  so  far  outgrown  his  faith  in  the  divine 
right  of  rulers  or  in  the  sacredness  of  the  property 
of  the  **  superior  classes"  that  life  is  more  sacred  than 

I  all  else.  To  him  no  interest,  no  rights,  no  class,  no 
institutions,  and,  if  the  worst  comes,  even  no  form  of 
I  government  is  as  sacred  as  the  social  demands  of  his 
t  family.  Unlike  his  mediaeval  ancestors,  rather  than 
sacrifice  the  latter  he  will  destroy  the  former,  and, 
Samson-like,  pull  down  the  whole  structure  of  society 
in  his  own  fall.  This  is  clearly  shown  by  the  readiness 
with  which  he  disregards  social  usages,  legal  rights,  or 
property  interests  in  inaugurating  strikes,  industrial 
riots,  and  social  revolutions  in  order  to  obtain  redress 
for  his  industrial  grievances  ;  also  by  the  prevalence  of 
revolutionary  organizations  seen  in   Europe  and  this 


4  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

country,  which  openly  denounce  all  claims  of  vested 
interests  and  the  social  superiority  of  any  class. 

For  these  reasons,  together  with  the  fact  that  there 
fs  vastly  more  accumulated   social  wealth  in  the  com- 
lunity  now  than    at  any  previous  time,   is  poverty 
imong  the  laboring  classes  more  dangerous  to  the  in- 
terests of  society  in  general,  and  to  the  wealthy  classes 
in  particular,  than  ever  before. 

Thus  it  is  that  while  social  progress  and  civilization 
confers  almost  unlimited  advantages,  it  at  the  same 
time  imposes  grave  responsibilities. 

It  is  a  fundamental  law  in  all  growth  that  it  should 
be  symmetrical.  The  top  of  anything  cannot  continue 
to  increase  in  extent  and  power  without  the  bottom 
being  correspondingly  strengthened  and  enlarged. 
So  it  is  with  society.  No  portion  of  it  can  con- 
tinuously improve  without  the  progress  of  the  whole. 
Consequently,  the  increased  wealth,  opportunity, 
and  freedom  of  the  "  successful  classes"  can  only 
be  permanently  secured  to  them  in  proportion  as  the 
poverty  of  the  masses  is  diminished  and  their  social 
opportunities  and  freedom  are  enlarged.  The  dangers 
that  menace  society  at  the  top  increase  exactly  in  pro- 
portion as  the  development  of  the  bottom,  upon  which 
it  depends,  is  neglected.  This  is  demonstrated  in  the 
history  of  every  arrested,  declining,  or  fallen  nation  or 
civilization  the  world  ever  saw. 

Therefore,  how  to  eliminate  poverty  is  the  problem 
which  concerns  alike  the  wealthy  and  laboring  classes, 
fihis  can  be  accomplished  in  but  oneway — viz.,  by  in- 
creasing wealth,  and  not  by  taking  it  from  those  who 
have  and  giving  to  those  who  have  not.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  make  any  important  diminution  of  the  poverty 
of  the  laboring  classes,  constituting  nearly  eighty  per 


THE   TRUE  REMEDY  FOR  POVERTY,  5 

cent  of  the  population,  by  any  redistribution  of  the 
present  wealth,  for  the  reason  that  there  is  not  now 
nor  was  there  ever  enough  wealth  in  existence,  how- 
ever divided,  to  make  any  appreciable  improvement  in 
the  general  condition  of  the  masses^ 

Hence  the  true  remedy  for  poverty  is  not  to  be 
found  in  any  scheme  for  the  arbitrary,  artificial  manipu- 
lation of  profits,  rents,  or  taxes,  however  equitable, 
because  at  best  such  an  operation  would  only  be  a 
transfer  and  not  an  incr^se  of  wealth.] 

Take,  for  example,  Mr.  George's  plan  for  abolishing 
poverty  by  confiscating  the  rent,  which,  he  says,  "  swal- 
lows up  all  the  gain"  of  civilization.  When  we  exam- 
ine the  facts)  we  find  that  the  rent  from  the  land  in  this 
country,  if  equally  divided  among  the  people,  would, 
according  to  the  returns  for  1880,  give  about  two  cents 
a  day  per  head.  What  would  that  do  toward  abolish- 
ing poverty  ?  Simply  nothing.;  It  would  only  be 
equal  to  re'ducing  the  taxes  oneTialf.  Any  proposition 
— and  this  is  the  most  rose-colored  one  yet  heard  of — 
which  will  only  increase  the  wealth  of  the  masses  two 
cents  a  day  can  hardly  be  worth  the  effort  as  a  meas- 
ure for  the  elimination  of  poverty. 

[The  same  is  true  of  all  schemes  for  the  redistribution! 
of  present  wealth,  by  whatever  meansj  It  is,  I  repeat,.' 
to  (the  increase  of  the  total  quantity  of  wealth  pro- 
duced, so  that  the  laborer  can  have  vastly  more  with- 
out anybody  having  any  lessjthat  we  must  look  for 
ariy  permanent  and  general  diminution  of  poverty. 

(The  question,  therefore,  for  the  social  reformer  and 

statesman  to  ask  is  not  how  can  rents  be  abolished  and 

profits  reduced,  but  how  can  the  aggregate  wealth  per 

capita  of  the  population    be  increased?^  At  the  very 

^  outset  of  the  discussion  we  are  brought  face  to  face 


6  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

with  one  of  the  most  important  and  at  the  same  time 
the  least  understood  questions  connected  with  econom- 
ic science-p??^. ,  the  true  economic  relation  that  con- 
\symption,  which  for  the  ijiasses  means  wages,  sustains 
to  production^  Production  and  distribution  are  gen- 
^erally  regarded,  by  both  the  laboring  and  employing 
Iclass,  not  only  as  distinct,  but  quite  different  ques- 
tions ;  as  though  wealth  was  produced  by  one  set  of 
jeconomic  forces  and  distributed  by  another.  'Hence 
/we  find  among  the  workingmen,  and  especially  social 
reformers,  that  the  great  complaint  is  that  "  there. is 
,too  much  concentration  of  wealth  and  too  little  distri- 
/bution  ;"  that  existing  institutions  are  "  all  in  the  in- 
terest of  production  and  against  the  distribution  of 
wealth  ;'*  that  it  is  not  a  greater  production  but  a 
more  equal  or  equitable  distribution  of  wealth  that  is 
'needed,"  etci 

fThis  view  has  very  naturally  given  rise  to  many- 
arbitrary  schemes  for  industrial  reform,  such  as  the 
abolition  of  interest,  profits,  rent,  etc.,  many  of  which 
would,  if  undertaken,  involve  an  entire  revolution  of 
our  industrial  and  social  institution^ ;  while  if  the  true 
relation  that  distribution  sustains  to  production  were 
apprehended  and  clearly  set  forth,  no  such  mistaken 
notions  would  ever  obtain. 

I  Distribution  as  a  distinct  economic  function  has  no 
existence  apart  from  production — that  is,  there  is  no 
social  factor  whose  normal  function  is  to  distribute 
wealth.  It  is  true  that  wealth  is  produced  by  and 
distributed  among  the  various  members  of  the  com- 
munity ;  but  the  distinction  between  production  and 
distribution  is  purely  a  metaphysical  one,  existing  only 
as  a  mental  concept,  while  as  an  actual  economic  fact 
it  has  no  existence.     In  a  word,  economic  or  industrial 


PRODUCTIVE  AND   CONSUMABLE    WEALTH.  7 

distribution  is  an  inseparable  and  indispensable  part  of 
the  necessary  process  of  production,  and  cannot  take 
place  in  any  other  way  (except  by  charity  or  theft, 
which  is  uneconomic). 

For  example,  the  payment  of  wages  is  distribution, 
but  it  takes  place  only  as  an  investment  in  production. 
The  employer  pays  wages  not  to  dispense  wealth,  but 
always  to  procure  more  wealth  ;  therefore,  as  an  em- 
ployer his  economic  function  is  not  a  distributor,  but 
a  producer,  the  distribution  taking  place  as  an  inevi- 
table result  of  his  efforts  to  produce.  And  for  the  same 
reason  that  there  can  be  no  production  apart  from  dis- 
tribution, the  latter  cannot  take  place  without  the 
former.*  Therefore,  to  talk  of  increasing  production 
without  enhancing  distribution,  or  of  increasing  dis- 
tribution without  at  the  same  time  enlarging  produc- 
tion is  the  simplest  economic  nonsense  ;  and  the  no- 
tion so  commonly  held  by  socialistic  reformers  that  all 
concentration  of  wealth  is  injurious  to  the  social  well- 
being  of  the  masses  is  equally  erroneous. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  there  are  two  kinds 
of  wealth — productive  wealth  and  consumable  wealth. 
The  former  consists  of  that  which  is  devoted  to  pro- 
duction as  capital,  while  the  latter  consists  of  that  pro- 
portion of  wealth  which  is  capable  of  directly  minister- 
ing to  our  wants  and  desires.  The  former — productive 
wealth  or  capital — exists  mainly  in  tools  and  imple- 
ments of  production,  such  as  machinery,  buildings, 
railroads,  ships,  etc.,  and  these  cannot  directly 
minister  to  our  wants  ;  that  is  to  say,  they  cannot 
serve  us  as  food,  clothes,  shelter,  etc.,  but  can  only 
minister  to   our  needs  indirectly  by  producing  those 

*  For  a  full  discussion  of  the  relation  of  consumption  to  production, 
the  reader  must  be  referred  to  the  second  volume. 


8  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

things  which  will  do  so  ;  therefore,  the  only  possible 
interest  the  laborer  or  the  community  can  have  in  the 
jdisposition  of  this  class  of  wealth  is  that  it  shall  be  so 
employed  as  to  give  the  largest  amount  of  products  at 
/the  least  expense  to  the  consumer.  If  by  having 
\  $ICXD, 000,000  capital  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  a 
*  hundred  men  devoted  to  the  production  of  shoes  in 
large  factories,  where  as  high  or  higher  wages  can  be 
paid  for  labor  and  the  shoes  given  to  the  consumer  for 
ten  cents  a  pair  less  than  would  be  possible  by  having 
the  same  $100,000,000  among  a  million  men  with 
small  factories,  clearly  it  is  to  the  interest  of  both  the 
laborer  and  the  general  community  to  have  this  wealth 
concentrated  in  the  hands  of  the  smaller  number  of 
persons.  And  this  is  what  is  taking  place  more  and 
more  in  every  industry  in  the  civilized  world.  All 
statistics  show  that  where  productive  wealth  is  the 
most  concentrated  the  products  are  cheapest  and  most 
abundant.  Witness  England  and  America  as  against 
India  and  China. 

With  consumable  wealth,  however,  the  case  is  just 
the  reverse,  as  this  kind  of  wealth  directly  ministers  to 
man's  wants  and  desires  ;  the  more  general  its  distri- 
bution, the  more  uniform  will  be  the  social  well-being 
of  all  classes  of  the  community.  And  fortunately  for 
civilization  all  the  influences  of  economic  and  social 
differentiation  conspire  against  the  concentration  of 
this  kind  of  wealth.  Nobody  has  any  interest  in  con- 
centrating consumable  wealth  ;  and  what  nobody  has 
any  interest  in  doing  will  most  assuredly  never  be 
done. 

The  only  wealth  that  any  class  has  any  interest  in 
concentrating  is  productive  wealth  (capital).  And 
it  is  one  of  the  divine  phases  of  natural  law  in  eco- 


HIGH    WAGES  AND  LARGE  PRODUCTION.  9 

nomics  that  the  concentration  of  productive  wealth 
— which  everybody  has  an  interest  in  promoting — can 
only  take  place  in  proportion  as  the  diffusion  of  con- 
sumable wealth  is  increased.  It  is  to  the  interest  of 
the  most  selfish  and  sordid  capitalist,  manufacturer, 
merchant,  or  trader  to  sell  his  products.  Indeed,  it  is 
only  in  proportion  as  they  can  thus  dispose  of  their 
consumable  wealth  that  they  or  the  community  derive 
any  benefit  from  the  use  of  their  productive  wealth 
(capital). 

Accordingly  we  find  the  world  over  that  the  produc- 
tion of  consumable  wealth  per  capita  of  the  population 
is  the  greatest  and  its  distribution  among  the  masses 
the  most  general  where  productive  wealth  is  the  most 
concentrated. 

In  this  country  and  in  England,  where  the  concen-f 
tration  of  capital  is  the  greatest  in  the  world,  the  pro-^ 
ductive  capacity  per  capita  is  nearly  two  and  a  half 
times  that  of  the  average  in  continental  countries,  five 
times  as  large  as  that  of  Italy,  Spain,  and  Portugal,"^ 
and  twelve  times  that  of  China  and  India  ;  and  the 
income  per  capitaf  is  about  thirteen  times  as  great  as 
that  of  India  and  China,  six  times  that  of  Italy,  Spain, 
and  Portugal,  and  more  than  twice  that  of  the  average 
on  the  European  Continent ;  and  the  general  rate  of 
wages  X  in  England  is  about  ten  times  that  of  Asia  and 
nearly  double  that  of  Continental  Europe  ;  while  in 
this  country  it  is  about  fifteen  times  that  of  Asia,  and 
within  a  fraction  of  three  times  that  of  the  average  on 
the  Continent. 

In  fact,  it  may  be  laid  down  as  a  fundamental  law  in 

*  Mulhall,  "  History  of  Prices,"  pp.  53-55. 
t  Ibid.^  "  Progress  of  the  World,"  p.  42. 
X  Ibid.,  "  History  of  Prices,"  p.  126. 


lo  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

\  economics  that  consumable  wealth  is  most  abundantly 
\produced  and  most  generally  and  equitably  distributed 
•jamong  the  masses  in  proportion  as  the  use  of  productive 
Wealth  (capital)  is  concentrated.* 

When  this  fact  is  fully  recognized  by  both  capitalists 
and  laborers,  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  confusion  and 
misunderstanding  in  the  industrial  controversy  will 
have  been  removed.  The  employing  classes  will  then 
abandon  the  pernicious  notion  that  low  wages  are  con- 
ducive to  large  production  and  high  profits,  and  the 
laborers  will  forever  discard  the  absurd  idea  that  limit- 
ing production  can  in  any  social  or  permanent  sense 
tend  to  increase  distribution. 

\  It  is  because  production  and  distribution  are  insepV 
table  phases  of  the  same  economic  movement  that 
large  production  and  extensive  consumption  per  capita 
^re  the  universal  accompaniments  of  each  other.  Wit- 
hess  the  small  production  and  meagre  consumption  in 
India  and  China,  and  the  large  production  and  rela- 
tively varied  and  extensive  consumption  per  capita  in 
England  and  this  country. 

As  the  diminution  of  poverty  is  only  possible  by  a 
greater  diffusion  of  wealth  among  the  masses,  and  as 
any  permanent  appreciable  increase  in  the  distribution 
of  wealth  is  equally  impossible  without  a  larger  aggre- 
fgate  production,  the  problem  is,  how  to  increase  the 
wealth  per  capita,  and  to  enable  that  increase  to  find 
its  way  to  the  laboring  classes. 

The  production  of  wealth,  with  the  exception  of  the 
little  variation  in  the  muscular  power  of  different  indi- 
viduals, which  is  too  slight  to  be  considered,  is  wholly 
a  question  of  tools  and  implements.     The  productive 

*  For  the  full  statement  of  this  principle,  the  reader  is  referred  to 
the  next  volume. 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROBLEM  STATED.  ii 

capacity  of  man  by  hand  labor  is  almost  uniform,  while, 
that   with    the   aid   of   tools,  machinery,   etc.,  varies] 
many  hundred  per  cent,  according  to  their  extent  and* 
efficiency  :    witness  the   hand-loom  and   the    factory. 
The  distribution  of  wealth,  at  least  so  far  as  regards 
the   income  of   the   laboring   classes,  which    is   what 
we  are  concerned  with  in  dealing  with  poverty,  is  a 
question  only  of  wages.*     Therefore,  to  the  question, 
how    can  the    aggregate    wealth   per    capita    be   in- 
creased ?  the  answer  is,  by  increasing  the  use  of  machin- 
ery in  the  process  of  production.      And  to  the  question, 
how  can  that  increase  of  wealth   find   its  way  to  the, 
laboring    classes,  the   answer   is,   by    increasing    ream, 
wages. 

For  all  practical  purposes,  then,  the  labor  problem, 
the  problem  of  diminishing  poverty,  may  be  reduced 
to  two  simple  propositions  : 

(i)  Hozv  can  the  use  of  improved  methods  of  produc- 
tion be  increased? 

(2)  How  can  the  general  rate  of  real  wages  be  perma- 
nently advanced  ? 

To  answer  these  two  questions  and  thereby  show 
how  real  wages  can  be  permanently  increased  and 
poverty  diminished  without  lessening  the  income  of 
the  profit  and  rent-receiving  classes  is  the  purpose  of 
the  following  pages. 

In  order  to  simplify  the  treatment  of  the  subject,  we 
have  divided  it  into  three  parts,  as  follows  : 

Part  I.   Increasing  Production  :  Its  Law  and  Cause. 

Part  II.  The  Law  of  Wages  Theoretically  Stated 
and  Historically  Established. 

*  For  a  full  statement  of  what  constitutes  wages,  see  Chapter  II., 
Part  II.  The  question  of  rent  and  profit  will  be  discussed  in  the  next 
volume. 


12  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

Part  III.  Principles  and  Methods  of  True  Social 
Reform. 

Although  these  parts  each  sustain  a  logical  relation 
to  the  whole,  they  are  sufficiently  monographic  in 
character  to  admit  of  being  considered  independent  of 
each  other.  Hence,  while  I  should  prefer  that  they 
were  read  in  the  order  in  which  they  are  presented, 
the  sense  would  not  be  seriously  affected  were  any 
other  course  adopted. 

But  while  this  is  true  of  the  parts,  it  is  far  from  be- 
ing true  of  the  chapters  in  each  part.     Part  I.  is  de- 
voted to  production.     It  consists  of  two  chapters,  the 
first  of  which  treats  of  the  relation  human  labor,  per 
e,  sustains  to  production.     The  socialistic  postulate 
hat  **  labor  is  the  creator  of  all  wealth"*  is  shown  to 
e  incorrect  in  fact  and  inimical  to  true  labor  reform, 
n    the  second  chapter   the   economic  importance  of 
high  wages  in  promoting  the  use  of  improved  machin- 
ery is  considered.     The  capitalistic  postulate  that  the 
wages  and  even  employment  of  the  laborer  primarily 
depend  upon  the  prosperity  of  the  employer  is  shown 
to  be  an  inversion  of  economic  relations.     It  is  demon- 
istrated  that  the  extensive  use  of  machinery  and  the 
isuccess  of   the    profit  receiving    class   finally  depend 
lupon  the   prosperity    of    the   wage-receiving   masses. 
iNeither  of  these  chapters  can  be  properly  understood 
without  reading  the  other. 

Part  II.  is  exclusively  devoted  to  the  subject  of 
wages,  and  it  comprises  nine  chapters.  The  first  is 
devoted  to  a  critical  examination  of  the  popular  theo- 
ries of  wages.  The  second  is  devoted  to  a  presenta- 
tion of  our  own  theory  of  the  law  of  wages.     So  far  as 

*  Platform  of  Socialistic  Labor  Party,  1885. 


THE  PLAN  OF   THE  BOOK  OUTLINED.  13 

the  theoretic  treatment  of  the  subject  is  concerned, 
this  chapter  may  be  regarded  as  approximately  com- 
plete. The  succeeding  five  chapters  are  devoted  to  an 
historical  review  of  the  movement  of  wages  in  different 
countries  and  industries  from  the  thirteenth  century  to 
the  present  time.  The  dawn  of  wages  in  the  thir- 
teenth century,  their  marked  rise  in  the  fourteenth, 
their  arrest  in  the  fifteenth,  their  stationary  condition 
during  the  sixteenth,  seventeenth,  and  eighteenth,  and 
their  phenomenal  rise  in  the  nineteenth  century,  in  the 
light  of  this  theory,  all  become  easily  explainable.  It 
also  affords  an  adequate  explanation  of  why  the  rate 
of  wages  in  the  same  industries  vary  in  different  coun- 
tries, and  vary  in  the  different  industries  in  the  same, 
countries  ;  why  they  are  higher  in  large  cities  than  inj 
smaller  towns  ;  why,  the  world  over,  they  are  lower  in» 
agricultural  than  in  manufacturing  and  commercial  in- 
dustries, and  why  the  wages  of  women  are  universally 
lower  than  those  of  men. 

The  eighth  chapter  treats  of  wages  under  piece-work, 
and  the  last  one  is  devoted  to  an  ultimate  analysis  of 
the  law  of  wages. 

It  is  true  that  we  have  devoted  considerable  space  to 
the  question  of  wages.  We  have  been  induced  to  do 
so  for  two  reasons  :  (i)  Because  it  constitutes  the  very/ 
kernel  of  the  social  problem,  which  can  never  be  solved^ 
until  the  wages  question  is  philosophically  settled,  andi 
(2)  because  it  has  never  received  the  comprehensive 
scientific  treatment  it  is  entitled  to. 

Part  III.,  which  comprises  nine  chapters,  is  devoted 
to  the  consideration  of  practical  propositions  for  in- 
dustrial reform.  As  to  the  means  for  inaugurating  the 
industrial  reform  which  shall,  through  the  natural 
operation  of  social  and  economic  forces,  tend  to  increase, 


14  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

I  wages  without  reducing  profits  or  abolishing  rents,  it 
is  not  necessary  to  say  anything  here.  In  closing, 
however,  I  may  say  that  every  step  in  that  direction 
has  been  taken  upon  a  strictly  scientific  basis.  No 
proposition  is  suggested  which  is  not  based  upon 
sound  economic  principles  and  the  absolute  feasibihty 
of  which  has  not  been  fully  demonstrated  by  ex- 
perience. 


WEALTH   AND    PROGRESS. 


PART   I. 

INCREASING  PRODUCTION  :  ITS  LAW  AND  CAUSE. 


CHAPTER    I. 
THE    RELATION   OF    LABOR  TO   PRODUCTION. 

The  idea  most  prevalent,  indeed,  well-nigh  uni% 
versal,  among  workingmen  regarding  the  production 
of  wealth,  to  use  the  official  language  of  the  largest 
labor  organization  in  the  world,*  is  :  *'  (i)  That  labor 
creates  all  wealth.  (2)  That  all  wealth  belongs  to  those 
who  create  it."  From  this  it  manifestly  follows,  "  that 
all  wealth  rightfully  belongs  to  the  laborer.''  Hence,  all 
who  obtain  wealth  without  his  consent  do  so  by  cheat- 
ing him  out  of  the  product  of  his  labor,  and  are  *  *  thieves 
and  robbers." 

This  is  not  merely  the  official  dogma  of  a  single  so- 
ciety, but  it  constitutes  the  basis  of  nearly  every  propo- 
sition and  the  essence  of  nearly  all  economic  literature 
put  forth  in  the  name  of  industrial  and  social  reform. 
With  financial  reformers  the  robbery  is  labelled  '*  in- 
terest and  usury  ;"  with  land  reformers  it  is  "  rent," 
and  with  the  socialists,  in  the  language  of  their  own 
economist,  Karl  Marx,  it  is  "  surplus  value,"  which  is 

*  "  Polity  of  the  Labor  Movement,"  Vol.  I.,  f .  4,  published  by  the 
Knights  of  Labor,  1885. 


1 6  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS, 

more  sweeping  than  any  of  the  others,  and  includes  all 
rents,  profits,  and  interest. 

\  If  this  formula  is  correct,  and  all  profits,  interest, 
rents,  etc.,  are  "  exploitation" — mere  plunder  of  the 
laborer — clearly  the  workingmen  would  be  justified  in 
using  any  means  within  their  power  to  take  possession 
of  all  the  wealth  in  the  community,  as  many  of  their 
leaders  are  expecting  them  some  day  to  do. 

But  is  it  correct  ?  If  the  first  proposition  is  true,  the 
balance  of  the  formula  is  indisputable  ;  but  if  it  is  not 
true,  then  the  whole  fabric  falls,  and  all  efforts  at  social 
reformation  based  upon  it  must  surely  fail  to  produce 
the  desired  and  expected  result. 

A  very  little  reflection  will  suffice  to  show  that  this 

froposition,  while  seemingly  true,  is  essentially  false.  X 
here  unquestionably  was  a  time  in  the  history  of  man 
hen  all  wealth  was  produced  by  human  labor.  When 
man  lived  on  wild  berries  or  such  fish  and  game  as  he 
could  procure  with  his  own  hands,  then  wealth  was  all 
produced  by  labor  ;  and  it  may  be  added  that  he  then 
got  not  only  all  the  wealth  he  produced,  but  all  that 
was  produced.  There  was  then  no  landlord,  capitalist, 
ipmployerj  or  politician  to  take  it  from  him  in  rent, 
profits,  interest,  or  taxes.  He  then  both  produced  all 
and  received  all,  and  it  should  be  remembered  that  he 
then  got  the  least,  and  was  literally  the  poorest  he  ever 
was  in  the  world.  From  that  time  to  this,  just  in  pro- 
portion as  he  has  learned  to  substitute  other  forces  for 
human  labor  in  production  has  the  amount  of  wealth 
he  received  increased.  Indeed,  that  is  the  only  con- 
dition upon  which  he  would  ever  consent  to  change  his 
methods  of  doing. 

Now,  suppose  the  primitive  hunter  was  able  by  his 
unaided  efforts  to  procure,  on  an  average,  300  pounds 


CAPITAL  NOT  *'  STORED-UP  LABORS  17 

of  game  a  year,  and  by  devoting  two  months  in  the 
year  to  making  bows  and  arrows  he  could  with  their 
aid,  during  the  remaining  ten  months,  obtain  400 
pounds  of  game,  would  the  whole  400  pounds  be  the 
product  of  the  man's  labor  ?  Certainly  not.  The  pro- 
ductive capacity  of  the  man  had  already  been  fully 
tested,  and  he  could  only  procure  300  pounds  a  year. 
The  other  100  pounds  was,  therefore,  clearly  due  to 
the  bow  and  arrow,  which  in  this  case  was  capital.  It 
may  be  said  that  the  bow  and  arrow  could  not  have 
caught  the  extra  100  pounds  of  game  without  the  la- 
borer ;  true,  nor  could  the  laborer  have  caught  it  with- 
out the  bow  and  arrow,  as  experience  had  shown.  In 
fact,  that  was  the  only  reason  he  was  willing  to  devote 
two  months  a  year  to  making  bows  and  arrows.  If  he 
could  have  procured  no  more  game  in  the  same  time 
with  than  without  the  capital,  he  would  have  refused 
to  use  it.  In  a  word,  it  is  simply  because  the  bow  and 
arrow,  in  addition  to  reimbursing  him  for  the  two 
months'  labor  he  has  bestowed  upon  it,  makes  him 
a  clean  present  of  100  pounds  of  game  a  year,  that  he 
is  willing  to  employ  it. 

Oh,  no,  says  some  one,  the  bow  and  arrow  (capital) 
gives  him  nothing  ;  it  is  simply  his  own  labor  in  another 
form.  In  short,  *'  capital  is  stored-up  labor,''  Ah! 
there  is  where  the  error  begins.  That  is  a  metaphysi- 
cal expression  which  is  a  great  deal  used,  and  it  is 
very  misleading. 

What  is  labor  ?  It  is  simply  human  force  or  energy. 
Now,  human  energy  cannot  be  "stored  up"  in  any- 
thing but  a  human  being,  and  only  to  a  very  limited 
extent  there.  A  healthy  person  would  not  be  enabled 
to  put  forth  twice  as  much  energy  and  skill  per  day 
during  the  last  half  of  the  year  because  he  had  been 


l8  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

idle  the  first  half.  It  is  because  of  the  laborer's  in- 
ability to  "  store  up"  his  labor— and  if  he  fails  to  sell 
to-day's  energy  to-day  it  is  lost  forever — that  enforced 
idleness  has  such  terrors  for  him. 

But  to  "  store  up"  human  force  in  anything  else  than 
a  human  being  is  absolutely  impossible.  When  human 
energy  is  devoted  to  any  object  it  is  expended^  and  as 
human  force  it  is  gone  forever.  If  it  is  wisely  directed 
it  will  produce  wealth  ;  if  not  it  will  be  wasted. 
If  it  produces  wealth  in  the  form  of  a  bow  and  arrow, 
the  bow  and  arrow  is  not  labor  ;  it  is  the  product  of 
labor.  It  is  a  new  thing  that  has  come  into  existence 
as  the  result  of  human  energy  having  been  expended 
upon  material  objects.  The  bow  and  arrow  are  as  dis- 
tinct and  as  different  from  human  labor  as  cotton 
cloth  is  from  a  weaver,  or  as  a  rose  is  from  a  dunghill. 

But  assuming  for  the  moment  that  human  labor  or 
force  can  be  **  stored  up"  in  material  objects,  no  one 
will  hardly  pretend  that  it  can  be  engendered  by  them. 
Therefore,  the  most  that  can  be  claimed  by  the  "  stor- 
ing-up"  theory  is  that  the  amount  of  human  energy 
expended  in  producing  an  object  is  transferred  to  and 
preserved  in  that  object. 

Now,  if  two  months'  human  force  was  deposited  in 
bows  and  arrows,  then  only  two  months'  human  energy 
could  be  put  forth  by  the  bows  and  arrows  ;  and  if  two 
months  were  expended  on  bows  and  arrows,  only  ten 
could  be  devoted  to  hunting.  We  have  seen  that,  un- 
aided, the  laborer  could  only  obtain  25  pounds  of  game 
a  month  ;  hence,  in  ten  months  he  could  only  pro- 
cure 250  pounds;  but  with  the  combined  force 
of  labor  and  the  bows  and  arrows  he  could  get  400 
pounds.  The  whole  of  the  additional  150  pounds, 
however,  was  not  due  to  the  bows  and  arrows.     There 


THE  LABORER'S  SHARE   OF  THE  PRODUCT.        19 

were  two  months'  labor  deposited  in  them,  and  that 
represented  fifty  pounds  of  game,  making  300  pounds 
as  the  result  of  the  human  force  and  100  pounds  pro- 
duced by  the  natural  forces  combined  in  the  bows  and 
arrows.  Thus,  whichever  way  we  consider  it,  the  ad- 
ditional 100  pounds  of  game  was  produced  by  capital 
and  not  by  labor. 

But  let  us  carry  our  illustration  a  little  further,  and 
suppose  another  person  who  has  an  aptitude  for  mak- 
ing bows  and  arrows  can  make  a  better  kind  of  weapon, 
one  that  will  kill  at  a  greater  distance,  and  thus  enable 
the  hunter  to  obtain  fifty  pounds  of  game  a  month. 
He  comes  to  our  hunter  and  says.  See  here,  I  can  make 
better  bows  and  arrpws  than  you  can,  and  you  can 
hunt  better  than  I  can.  Now  if  you  will  give  me  one 
fourth  of  the  game  you  catch,  I  will  supply  you  with 
these  superior  bows  and  arrows,  by  which  you  can  get 
600  pounds  of  game  a  year.  He  accepts  the  offer,  and 
the  result  is  that,  after  giving  to  the  man  who  supplies 
the  capital  (bows  and  arrows)  one-fourth  of  the  prod- 
uct, he  has  450  pounds. 

Now,  who  has  been  robbed  ?  Nobody.  True,  the 
laborer  once  got  all  the  wealth,  and  he  now  only  gets 
three-fourths  ;  but  when  he  got  it  all  he  received  fifty 
per  cent  less  than  when  he  only  gets  three-fourths  of 
it.  And  this  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  total  prod- 
uct had  been  doubled.  Nor  is  this  increased  product 
due  to  any  increased  expenditure  of  labor.  There  was 
no  more  human  effort  put  forth  to  produce  the  600 
than  was  devoted  to  that  of  the  300  pounds  of  game. 
The  increase  was  wholly  due  to  the  use  of  tools 
(capital). 

When  the  wealth  was  all  produced  by  human  effort 
the  laborer  received  it  all,  and  got  300  pounds  of  game 


20  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS, 

a  year.  When  he  produced  a  little  less  than  two-thirds 
of  it  he  received  five-sixths,  and  then  got  400  pounds. 
And  when  he  produced  only  one-half  he  got  three- 
fourths  of  it,  and  then  received  450  pounds  a  year. 
Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  instead  of  the  laborer  being 
robbed  by  capital  he  from  the  first  received  a  clear 
contribution  from  capital,  which  constantly  increases 
as  its  use  in  the  production  is  extended. 

Now,  this  is  just  what  takes  place  in  all  productive 
enterprises,  no  matter  how  subtle  and  complex  the 
operation  may  be.  There  are  thus  clearly  two  sets  of 
forces  or  two  kinds  of  motor  power  that  can  be  em- 
fployed  in  producing  wealth.  One  is  labor  power  en- 
gendered and  put  forth  by  human  beings  ;  the  other  is 
natural  power  engendered  and  put  forth  by  material 
bbjects,  as  capital  (machinery,  etc.).  The  former  is 
slow,  clumsy,  and  ineffectual,  and  capable  of  very  lit- 
tle increase,  while  the  latter  is  rapid,  exact,  and  pow- 
erful, and  is  capable  of  indefinite  increase. 

Accordingly,  in  proportion  as  wealth  is  produced  by 
human  labor  is  it  scant  and  dear,  and  the  masses  are 
poor  and  barbarous  ;  and  according  as  it  is  produced 
by  natural  forces  (steam,  etc.)  it  is  abundant  and 
cheap,  and  the  masses  are  materially  prosperous  and 
socially  civilized.  Thus,  e.g,^  in  India,  where  wealth 
is  produced  mainly  by  human  labor,  the  annual  earn- 
ings are  about  £2  ($10)*  per  capita  of  the  population 
as  against  ;^33  ($165)  per  capita  in  this  country,  where 
human  labor  supplies  the  smallest  per  cent  of  the  pro- 
ductive power  of  any  country  in  the  world,  f  The 
same  is  true  of  other  countries. 


♦  See  Mulhall's  "  Progress  of  the  World,"  p.  43. 
f  Ibid.^  "  History  of  Prices,"  p.  53. 


HIGH   WAGES  AND  LARGE   CAPITALS.  21 

Hence  we  find  that  in  England  over  seventy-eight 
per  cent  of  the  productive  power  is  furnished  by  steam, 
as  against  ten  per  cent  in  Russia.  In  Spain,  twenty- 
four  ;  Italy,  thirty-four,  and  Portugal,  forty-two  per 
cent  of  the  productive  power  is  furnished  by  human 
labor,  as  against  four  per  cent  in  England  and  America. 

In  consequence  of  this  difference  in  the  use  of 
natural  and  human  forces  in  production,  Mulhall  tells 
us*  **  that  the  united  industrial  power  of  six  English- 
men and  six  Americans  is  equal  to  that  of  twenty-four 
Frenchmen  or  Germans,  thirty-two  Austrians,  fifty 
Spaniards,  seventy-five  Italians,  or  eighty-four  Portu- 
guese. '  *  Accordingly  we  find  the  general  rate  of  wages 
in  England  is  nearly  twice  and  in  this  country  three 
times  that  of  the  average  in  continental  countries. 

It  is  thus  clear  that  the  laborer  is  not  robbed  by 
capital,  but  that  he  always  gains  by  the  use  of  capital, 
not  because  of  any  generosity  on  the  part  of  the  capi- 
talist, but  by  the  inexorable  operation  of  economic 
law,  which  prohibits  the  use  of  capital  except  upon  the 
condition  that  it  will  yield  increasing  returns — in 
other  words,  that  it  will  give  more  wealth  to  the  com- 
munity than  it  takes  from  it. 

Were  this  otherwise,  social  progress  would  be  im- 
possible, as  the  productive  power  of  the  human  hand 
cannot,  to  any  great  extent,  be  increased.  Hence, 
unless  some  other  forces  can  be  harnessed  to  the  pro- 
duction of  wealth,  man  would  be  doomed  to  eternal 
poverty  and  barbarism,  as  he  has  been  for  ages  in 
those  countries  where  natural  forces  (machinery)  have 
not — except  to  the  most  limited  extent — been  em- 
ployed. In  short,  it  is  only  as  capital  produces  more 
than  it  consumes  that  the  laborer  is  enabled  to  con- 

*  '*  History  of  Prices,"  p.  54. 


22  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

sume  more  than  he  produces,  and  social  progress  be- 
comes possible. 

It  is  therefore  clear  that  human  labor  does  not,  ex- 
cept under  the  most  primitive  state  of  savagery,  *  *  create 
all  wealth,"  and  that  the  social  condition  of  the  laborer 
is  not  necessarily  the  best  when  he  gets  the  whole  prod- 
uct ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  wealth  is  produced  by  the 
combined  effort  of  labor  and  capital,  and  that,  accord- 
ing as  the  proportion  of  the  total  wealth  produced  by 
human  labor  diminishes,  the  actual  amount  the  laborer 
receives  increases.  In  other  words,  the  social  well- 
being  improves  in  proportion  as  nature,  instead  of 
man,  is  made  to  do  the  work  of  producing  the  world's 
wealth. 

This  brings  us  to  the  question.  How  is  the  use  of 
natural  or  labor-saving  forces  in  production  deter- 
mined ?  which  will  be  the  subject  of  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER   II. 

INCREASED   CONSUMPTION  BY  THE   MASSES  THE   REAL 
CAUSE   OF  IMPROVED   MACHINERY. 

What  we  have  said  in  the  last  chapter  aboi.t  the 
mistaken  notions  entertained  by  the  laborers  regarding 
their  economic  relation  to  production,  the  employing 
class  will  be  quick  to  appreciate.     They  have  no  diffi- 
culty in  seeing  that  the  extensive  use  of  capital  is  in- 
dispensable  to  a  large  production  of  wealth.     Nor  are 
they  at  all  slow  to  observe  the  fact  that  rising  wages 
and  falling  prices    accompany  the    extensive  use^f 
labor-saving  methods  of  production.     But  when  we* 
come  to  question  of  how  the  use  of  improved  machin-? 
ery  is  determined,  we  find  that  the  capitalists  as  a  class  j 
are  very  little  better  informed  as  to  their  economic  re- ! 
lation  to  production  than  are  the  unlettered  laborers.  ; 
They  almost  invariably  assume  and  very  often  offen- 1 
sively  insist  that  the  use  of  machinery  is  due  to  their 
self-denial  and  sagacity.     They  hold  it  is  because  they 
have  been  willing  to  forego  the  luxuries   others  en- 
joy, and  had  the  wisdom  to   invest  their  capital   in 
improved  machinery,  that  laborers  are  enabled  to  have 
higher  wages,  consumers  lower  prices,  and  social  prog- 
ress has  been  made  possible. 

With  such  an  inflated  estimate  of  his  own  impj||- 
tance,  backed  by  economic  lore,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
the  average  employer  should  regard  the  laborer  as  an 
ungrateful  wretch  when  he  asks  for  higher  wages,  and,  i^ 


24  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

as  is  often  the  case,  remind  him  that  it  is  only  by  the 
employer's  sacrifice  and  forethought  that  he  has  hith- 
erto been  enabled  to  receive  any  wages  at  all. 
j    A  little  closer  consideration  of  the  subject,  however, 
ill  show  that  this  view  is  as  erroneous  as  is  that  of 

he  laborer,  who  assumes  that  he  is  the  sole  producer 
fbf  wealth.  We  shall  find  that  instead  of  the  laborer's 
[higher  wages  and  improved  social  condition  being  the 
[iPesult  of  the  employer's  investment  in  machinery,  the 

ase  is  just  the  reverse — viz.,  that  the  successful  invest- 
ment of  capital  in  machinery  is  made  possible  only 
by  the  increased  consumption  (higher  wages)  of  the 
masses.*  Nor  is  the  reason  for  this  difficult  to  under- 
'stand.  The  fact  that  man  endeavors  to  satisfy  his 
wants  with  the  minimum  effort  is  as  universal  as  the 
human  race.  Hence,  as  there  are  two  sets  of  forces, 
human  and  natural  (labor  and  capital),  by  which  wealth 
can  be  produced,  he  will  naturally  use  that  force  which 
will,  under  the  circumstances,  enable  him  to  obtain 
wealth  the  easiest.  If  the  primitive  hunter  could  pro- 
cure as  much  game  and  defend  himself  against  attack 
as  well  without  as  with  the  bow  and  arrow  or  other  im- 
plement, he  would  not  devote  any  time  to  making  such 
implements,  for  the  obvious  reason  that  nothing  would 
be  gained  by  so  doing. 

Upon  the  same  principle,  in  a  highly  complex  soci- 
ety, where  wealth  is  mostly  obtained  by  exchange, 
man  will  use  those  things  which,  other  things  being 
the  same,  he  can  obtain  the  cheapest.  Hence,  the 
use  of  that  which  undersells  will  always  supplant  that 
which  is  undersold.  Consequently,  just  as  fast  as  any 
commodity  can    be    undersold    will    the  methods   by 

*  Brassey's  "  Work  and  Wages,"  ch.  v. 


THE  BASIS  OF  INCREASING  RETURNS.  25 

which  it  is  produced  be  driven  into  disuse.  Therefore, 
whether  at  any  given  time  or  place,  labor  (human  force) 
or  capital  (natural  forces,  machinery,  etc.)  is  most 
extensively  used  in  the  production  of  wealth  will  de- 
pend upon  which  of  them  can  produce  wealth  the 
cheapest. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  capital  becomes  a  factor  in 
production  only  in  proportion  as  it  is  able  to  produce 
wealth  cheaper  than  it  can  be  produced  by  human 
labor.  For  the  same  reason  that  a  man  will  not  de- 
vote his  labor  to  production  except  he  can  obtaiii 
wealth  by  so  doing,  will  he  refuse  to  devote  the  prodr 
ucts  of  his  labor  (capital)  to  production  except  he  can 
thereby  gain  something.  Then,  as  neither  the  com- 
munity will  use  nor  the  capitalist  furnish  improved 
methods  of  production  unless  both  can  obtain  more 
wealth  for  the  same  exertion  by  the  undertaking,  cap- 
ital can  be  permanently  employed  in  production  only 
when  it  yields  more  than  it  costs.  In  other  words,  the 
permanent  use  of  improved  machinery  is  possible  only 
under  conditions  of  increasing  returns. 

By  increasing  returns  we  mean  the  conditions  under, 
which  the  application  of  additional  capital  to  pro- 
duction will  yield  more  than  a  proportional  increase 
of  product,  which  is  illustrated  in  the  history  of  every 
successful  enterprise.  Thus,  e.g. ,  in  the  cotton  indus- 
try in  this  country,  in  1831,  there  was  $651  of  capital 
invested  to  each  operative  employed  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  cotton  cloth.  The  annual  product  in  finished 
cloth  was  956.70  pounds  per  operative,  or  1.46  pounds 
per  dollar  invested.  In  1880  the  capital  invested  in 
the  business  was  $1207  per  operative,  and  the  annual 
product  was  3519.47  pounds  of  cloth  per  operative,  or 

2.91   pounds  per  dollar  invested  ;  thus  showing  that 

3' 


26  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

with  an  investment  in  improved  machinery  of  $1207 
per  operative  in  1880,  each  dollar  produced  ninety-nine 
per  cent  more  cloth  than  it  did  in  183 1,  when  only 
$65 1  per  operative  were  so  invested.  By  this  increas- 
ing return  the  laborer  could  have  higher  wages,  the 
consumer  have  the  goods  at  lower  prices,  and  the  em- 
ployer could  have  a  larger  aggregate  income  at  even  a 
smaller  rate  of  profit.  This  is  what  the  history  of  the 
present  century  shows*  has  taken  place  wherever  in- 
creasing returns  were  possible. 

J  To  make  natural  forces  cheaper  than  human  labor  as 
a  productive  power  is  to  make  wealth  and  civilization 
cheaper  for  everybody  than  poverty  and  barbarism. 
'^Therefore,  how  to  make  increasing  returns  to  capital, 
and  hence  the  general  use  of  machinery  possible,  is 
primarily  to  solve  the  social  or  poverty  problem, 
what,  then,  are  the  social  conditions  necessary  to 
make  increasing  returns  and  the  use  of  natural  force 
in  production  economically  possible  ? 

To  begin  with,  natural  forces  can  only  be  har- 
nessed to  production  by  the  use  of  capital.  For  the 
same  reason  that  the  laborer  will  not  devote  his  labor 
to  production  without  some  reward,  the  owner  of 
wealth  will  not  devote  it  to  production  as  capital  un- 
less he  can  gain  something  thereby.  In  order  to  ac- 
complish this  he  must  do  one  of  three  things — viz., 
either  give  the  laborer  less,  charge  the  consumer 
more  for  his  products,  or  produce  a  larger  amount  in 
jthe  same  time.  The  first  is  impossible,  because  the 
♦laborer  will  refuse  to  work  for  less  than  he  could  get 

♦Carroll  D.  Wright  estimates  (i88o)  that  wages  in  the  cotton  indus- 
try in  this  country  have  about  doubled  since  1828.  Since  1826  the 
price  of  heavy  sheetings  has  been  reduced  from  13  to  •j\  cents  a 
yard,  and  that  of  printed  calicoes  from  22  to  7  cents  a  yard. 


CHEAP  LABOR   MEANS  DEAR  PRODUCTS.  27 

by  hand  labor  ;  the  second  is  equally  so,  because  theJ 
consumers  will  refuse  to  buy  at  a  higher  price  than  the; 
hand  laborer  will  sell  at  ;  therefore,  the  third  condi- 
tion— viz.,  to  produce  more  in  the  same  time — is  the 
only  one  upon  which  the  owner  of  capital  can  gain- 
anything  by  the  transaction,  and  consequently  the 
only  one  upon  which  he  will  consent  to  invest  his  cap- 
ital in  machinery. 

Whatever  will  do  this  will  actually  yield  increasing 
returns,  and  lessen  the  cost  of  producing  wealth.  But 
there  is  one  other  condition  that  is  necessary  to  make 
it  economically  and  socially  a  success.  That  is  that 
the  increased  product  must  all  be  sold.  If  it  cannot 
be  sold  it  is  socially  wasted.  Wealth  that  is  not  con- 
sumed in  the  gratification  of  human  wants  is  econom- 
ically as  if  it  had  not  been  produced. 

In  order  to  illustrate  the  operation  of  this  principle, 
let  us  suppose  that  in  a  given  community  the  con- 
sumption of  fish  is  icx)  pounds  a  day.  To  obtain  this 
amount  of  fish  required  the  labor  of  ten  men,  at  $1  a 
day  each.  At  that  rate  the  fish  would  cost  ten  cents 
per  pound.  Let  us  further  suppose  that  by  the  use 
of  boats,  nets,  etc.,  instead  of  fish-hooks,  the  same  men 
could  catch  300  pounds  of  fish  per  day.  We  will  also 
suppose  that  the  boats,  etc.,  would  last  two  years,  and 
would  require  the  labor  of  four  men  one  year  to  make 
them.  That  would  be  equal  to  constantly  employing 
two  men  in  producing  boats,  nets,  etc.  By  thus  de- 
voting the  product  of  two  men's  labor  to  niaking  tools 
they  would  be  able  to  increase  their  production  of  fish 
200  per  cent.  By  this  means,  provided  the  product 
could  all  be  sold,  the  cost  of  the  fish  would  be  reduced 
from  ten  to  four  cents  per  pound.  But  suppose  only 
200  pounds  of  the  fish  were  consumed.     As  the  cost 


2  8  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

of  producing  the  whole  300  pounds  would  have  to  be 
defrayed  out  of  the  income  from  that  portion  which  was 
sold — the  balance  being  as  if  it  had  not  been  produced 
— obviously  the  200  pounds  consumed  would  have  to 
be  sold  at  six  cents  a  pound.  And  for  the  same  reason 
if  only  the  original  icx)  pounds  were  consumed  they 
would  cost  twelve  cents  a  pound. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  if  the  consumption  of  fish 
had  remained  stationary,  the  small  demand  of  100 
pounds  per  day  could  have  been  supplied  at  two  cents 
a  pound  cheaper  by  the  old  method  than  by  the  new  ; 
while  if  the  consumption  had  grown  to  200  pounds  a 
day,  by  investing  as  much  capital  in  boats,  nets,  etc., 
as  would  pay  for  the  labor  of  two  men,  the  product  of 
fish  would  be  doubled,  and  the  cost  to  the  consumer 
reduced  forty  per  cent.  And  if  the  consumption  had 
risen  to  300  pounds  a  day,  the  same  investment  of  cap- 
ital would  have  trebled  the  product,  and  reduced  the 
price  of  the  'fish  sixty  per  cent.  It  will  thus  be  seen 
that  with  the  small  consumption  (low  wages)  the  prod- 
ucts of  hand  labor  were  cheaper  than  those  of  natural 
forces  (tools)  ;  and  in  proportion  as  consumption  en- 
larged (wages  rose)  increasing  returns  for  the  use  of 
capital  became  possible,  and  consequently  the  products 
of  natural  forces  (boats,  nets,  etc.)  became  cheaper 
than  those  of  hand  labor.  Manifestly,  therefore,  the 
social  utility  and  hence  the  economic  possibility  of 
adopting  improved  methods  of  production  finally  de- 
pends upon  the  increased  consumption  of  wealth  by 
the  community — by  the  masses — which,  in  modem  so- 
ciety, means  increasing  wages. 

Therefore,  instead  of  the  increased  wages  and  im- 
proved social  condition  of  the  laboring  classes  being 
in  any  true  sense  due  to  the  "  sacrifice"  and  wisdom 


DEAR  LABOR  PROMOTES  MACHINERY,  29 

of  the  employing  class,  by  investing  their  capital  in 
machinery,  the  successful  use  of  capital  to  any  consid-» 
erable  extent,  and  hence  the  income  of  the  entrepreneur! 
class,  ultimately  depends  upon  increasing  the  economid 
capacity  of  the  masses  to  consume  wealth — i.e,^  the  rise 
of  real  wages. 

Accordingly,  we  find  that  among  the  American  Ind- 
ians, Esquimaux,  Patagonians,  and  other  barbarian 
tribes  there  is  practically  no  use  for  the  employing  and 
capitalist  class.  They  cannot  get  a  living  among  those 
people,  and  why  ?  Simply  because  the  consumption 
of  wealth  per  capita  is  so  small  that  they  can  supply 
their  wants  with  hand  labor  or  by  means  of  the  rudest 
tools  cheaper  than  with  modern  machinery.  And  in 
India  and  China,  where  the  consumption  per  capita  is 
a  little  larger,  the  chance  for  the  entrepreneur  class  to 
obtain  a  living  is  a  little  better.  It  is  a  little  better] 
still  in  Russia,  Austria,  Italy,  and  Spain,  where  wages) 
are  higher  ;  still  better  in  France  and  Germany,  and  \ 
best  of  all  in  England  and  the  United  States,  where  j 
the  wages  and  consumption  per  capita  are  the  largest ' 
in  the  world.* 

*  According  to  Mulhall,  in  India,  with  wages  at  60  to  70  cents  a 
week,  the  capital  invested  in  production  is  only  about  $35  per  head 
of  the  population.  In  Russia,  with  wages  at  $3.60  per  week,  it  is 
$190  per  capita.  In  Austria,  Italy,  Spain,  and  Portugal,  with  wages 
at  $3.76,  it  is  about  $350  per  capita.  In  Germany,  with  wages  at  $3.84, 
it  is  $540  per  capita.  In  France,  with  wages  at  about  $5,  the  capital 
invested  is  about  $1010  per  capita,  and  in  England,  with  wages  at 
$7.74  per  week,  it  is  $1300  per  capita.  Accordingly,  in  England 
78.16  per  cent  of  the  products  are  made  by  steam  as  against  10  per 
cent  in  Russia,  29  per  cent  in  Austria,  34  per  cent  in  Italy,  Portugal, 
and  Scandinavia,  and  36  per  cent  in  all  Continental  countries.  And 
in  England  and  America  4^  per  cent  of  the  product  is  made  by  hand 
labor  as  against  23.19  per  cent  in  Spain,  33.67  per  cent  in  Italy,  and 
42.37  per  cent  in  Portugal. 


30  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

An  increase  in  the  general  rate  of  wages  tends  to  in- 
fluence the  use  of  improved  methods  of  production  in 
two  ways  simultaneously.  It  not  only  makes  improved 
machinery  possible  through  a  larger  consumption,  but 
at  the  same  time,  through  its  tendency  to  increase  the 
cost  of  labor,  it  makes  the  use  of  machinery  necessary 
in  order  to  reduce  the  price  as  well  as  increase  the 
quantity  of  wealth  produced. 

This  fact  has  been  partially  recognized,  but  its  eco- 
nomic importance  has  never  been  fully  understood. 
Economists  have  fully  recognized  the  economic  advan- 
tage of  improved  machinery  and  extensive  markets, 
but  they  have  utterly  failed  to  recognize  the  necessity 
of  high  wages  as  a  means  to  that  end.  Adam  Smith 
clearly  saw  that  the  division  of  labor  and  the  use  of 
machinery  are  '^  limited  by  the  extent  of  the  rharket  ;" 
but  neither  he  nor  any  of  the  able  writers  who  followed 
Jiim  appear  to  have  perceived  the  more  important 
double  fact — viz.  :  (i)  that  the  extent  of  the  market  is 
tnainly  determined  by  the  consumption  of  the  labor- 
ing class,  who  it  is  estimated  consume  about  eighty 
per  cent  of  the  machine-made  products  of  the  world, 
and  (2)  that  it  is  only  in  proportion  as  real  wages  rise 
and  labor  becomes  dear  that  it  is  worth  saving,  and  the 
use  of  cheaper  methods  (machinery)  becomes  an  eco- 
nomic necessity. 

This  partial  view  is  largely  due  to  the  mistake  of 
constantly  regarding  the  laborer  as  only  a  factor  in 
production  and  ignoring  him  as  an  element  in  con- 
sumption, and  consequently  viewing  wages  as  an  ex- 
penditure, as  a  cost  that  should  be  reduced,  instead  of 
regarding  them  as  an  element  of  demand  and  a  purchas- 
ing force  in  the  market,  which  should  be  steadily 
increased.    This  fact  once  thoroughly  understood  by 


ECONOMIC  EFFECT  OF  RAISING   WAGES.  31 

the  employing  class  they  would  soon  radically  change 
their  attitude  toward  the  labor  movement.  They 
would  then  see  that  their  economic  interest  and  pros- 
perity is  finally  identified  with  rising  and  not  with  fall- 
ing or  even  stationary  wages. 

Although  it  is  not  possible  for  employers,  as  such,  to^ 
arbitrarily  raise  wages,  they  would  then  see  that  it  is/ 
alike  to  their  interest  and  their  duty  to  use  all  theii^ 
social  and  political  influence  in  promoting  instead  of 
retarding  the  free  operation  of  the  economic  and  social 
forces,  which  tend  to  naturally,  and  therefore  gradually 
and  permanently,  increase  the  general  rate  of  wages. 

It   should    always   be    remembered  that  a  general, 
'  rise  of  real  wages  can  never  be  brought  about  by  any' 
\  arbitrary  and  artificial  means  ;  but,  as  we  shall  hereafter 
^  see,  it  is  always  due  to  the  unconscious  operation  of 
social  influences.     Hence  the  movement,  when  natural, 
is  always  subtle,  complex,  and  very  gradual.     Conse- 
quently, it  never  injuriously  disturbs  the  economic  re- 
lations of  any  class  in  the  community. 

Although  the  upward  movement  of  wages  is  always 
subtle  and  composite,  taking  place  in  almost  in- 
sensible gradations,  it  is  none  the  less  positive  and 
aggressive.  The  first  economic  effect  arising  from 
the  laborer  demanding  more  wages  is  to  increase  the 
pressure  upon  the  employer's  profits  or  the  capitalist's 
interest.  The  manufacturer,  endeavoring  to  move  in 
the  direction  of  the  least  resistance,  at  once  tries  to 
avoid  this  pressure  bypassing  it  on  to  the  consumer  in 
the  form  of  higher  prices,  and  the  consumer,  acting 
upon  the  same  principle,  endeavors  to  resist  the 
higher  prices  by  refusing  to  purchase  or  by  buying  a 
smaller  quantity  of  the  products.  Thus,  what  the 
manufacturer  gains  by  increased  prices  he  loses  by  de- 


32  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

creased  sales.     On  the  other  hand,  if  the  employer  at- 
tempts to  resist  the  upward  tendency  of  wages  he  is 
met  by  the  stoppage  of  his  works,  which  involves  an 
economic  loss  and  a  social  disturbance,  which  is  always 
very  disagreeable  and  often  ruinous,  and  will  only  be 
\  encountered  as  a  last  resort.     Ultimately,  therefore, 
i  the  employer  is  compelled  to  choose  between  the  use 
I  of  an  improved  process  of  production,  by  which  his 
I  commodities  can    be  made  cheaper,  or  the   lowering 
\and  perhaps  the  loss  of  his  profits. 

The  latter,  involving  as  it  does  his  own  impoverish- 
ment, is  naturally  the  last  thing  he  will  consent  to  do  ; 
consequently,   in  obedience  to  the  same  law  of  self- 
interest  which  impelled  the  laborer  to  demand  higher 
j  wages  and   the  community  to  refuse  to  pay  higher 
j  prices,    he   turns  for   relief  to   the    use  of  improved 
\machinery*  as  a  means  of  production. 

This  result  having  been  reached  by  the  constant, 
gradual,  and  almost  insensible  action  and  reaction  of 
social  influence,  he  does  it  not  with  any  conscious  re- 
luctance, as  a  desperate  last  resort  to  escape  ruin,  but 
rather  as  an  agreeable  act  of  economic  strategy,  in  the 
laudable  endeavor  to  improve  his  condition  by  moving 
in  the  direction  of  the  least  resistance. 

By  doing  this  he  unconsciously  avoids  all  the  dan- 
gers that  would  beset  him  in  other  directions.  As  in 
the  case  of  the  fisherman  in  our  illustration,  by  invest- 
ing as  much  capital  in  improved  tools  and  implements 
as  he  previously  paid  in  wages  to  one-fourth  of  his 

*  Or  to  a  more  extensive  use  of  the  present  machinery,  such  as  a 
larger  factory,  etc.,  by  which  means  he  can  produce  the  same  amount 
with  less  waste,  less  cost  in  superintendence,  less  cost  in  motive 
power,  etc.,  which  has  the  same  influence  on  the  cost  of  production 
as  improved  machinery. 


HIGH   WAGES   THE  BASIS  OF  LOW  PRICES.       33 

laborers,  he  is  enabled  to  produce  the  same  amount  at^ 
a  much  less  cost.  By  this  means  he  is  not  only  able 
to  comply  with  the  demand  of  the  laborers  for  higher 
wages  without  any  diminution  of  his  profits,  but  he  is[ 
also  enabled  to  greatly  reduce  instead  of  increase  the* 
price  of  the  commodities. 

This  enables  him  to  sell  the  products  at  a  lower 
price  and  puts  them  within  reach  of  another  large  class 
who  were  unable  to  consume  them  before,  thereby 
greatly  extending  the  market,  thus  enlarging  his  in- 
come without  raising  the  rate  of  profits,  and  at  the 
same  time  increasing  the  demand  for  labor. 

This  is  the  way  all  improved  methods  of  production 
have  come  into  existence.  It  was  upon  this  principle 
that,  as  an  instrument  of  production,  the  plough  be- 
came cheaper  than  the  spade,  the  mowing-machine 
cheaper  than  the  scythe,  the  factory  cheaper  than  the 
hand-loom  and  spinning-wheel,  the  sewing-machine 
cheaper  than  the  needle,  the  ocean  steamer  cheaper 
than  the  sailing  vessel,  and  the  railroad  cheaper  than 
the  stage-coach.  And  it  was  upon  the  same  principle 
and  in  the  same  manner  that  woven  garments  of  flax, 
wool,  cotton,  and  silk  became  cheaper  than  skins  of 
animals  ;  that  parlor  matches  were  made  more  econom- 
ical than  the  tinder-box,  gas  undersold  tallow  candles, 
and  electricity  will  ultimately  be  cheaper  than  either. 
This  explains  why  machinery,  which  produces  wealth^ 
so  cheaply  in  England  and  America,  cannot  be  em-| 
ployed  in  Asia.  In  short,  it  is  a  universal  law  in  the  1 
world  of  economics  that  the  use  of  machinery  ultimately 
depends  upon  the  consumption  of  wealth  by  the  masses,* 

*  For  a  more  extended  treatment  of  the  economic  relation  of  con- 
sumption to  the  production  of  wealth,  the  reader  is  referred  to  the 
chapter  of  the  "  Law  of  Production"  in  the  next  volume. 


34  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

and  consequently  can  only  be  successfully  extended 
as  the  general  rate  of  real  wages  is  permanently  ad- 
vanced. Hence,  to  promote  this  is  really  the  first 
step  toward  the  abolition  of  enforced  idleness  and  the 
elimination  of  poverty. 

Therefore,  as  poverty  can  only  be  permanently  di- 
minished as  the  production  of  wealth  per  capita  is  in- 
creased, and  that  can  only  take  place  as  the  use  of  im- 
proved methods  of  production  are  extended,  which  in 
turn  depends  upon  wages,  it  is  very  clear  that  the  first 
step  toward  the  elimination  of  poverty  is  to  promote 
the  general  permanent  increase  of  real  wages. 


PART    II. 

THE  LAW  OF  WAGES  STATED  AND  HISTORICALLY 
ESTABLISHED. 


CHAPTER    I. 

POPULAR  THEORIES   OF  WAGES   CONSIDERED. 
Section  I. —  The  Wages-Fund  Theory. 

The  "  wages-fund  **  theory  is,  briefly  stated,  the 
doctrine  of  "  supply  and  demand  "  applied  to  wages. 
This  theory,  which  was  suggested  by  Adam  Smith, 
and  subsequently  developed  by  Ricardo,  McCulloch, 
and  Mill,  constitutes  one  of  the  cardinal  dogmas  upon 
which  the  industrial  policy  of  the  present  century  has 
been  based. 

According  to  this  doctrine,  a  certain  portion  of  the 
capital  of  every  country  is  set  apart  exclusively  for  the 
payment. of  wages,  which  is  called  the  **  wages  fund." 
More  than  that  amount,  it  is  held,  the  laborers  cannot 
receive,  and  less  than  that  amount  the  employers  can- 
not pay.*  That  is  to  say,  the  aggregate  amount  paid 
in  wages  in  any  country,  at  any  given  time,  is  neither 
more  nor  less  than  that  contained  in  this  fund,  and 
that,  therefore,  the  rate  of  wages  is  regulated  solely 

*  Mill,  in  the  Fortnightly  Review  for  May,  1869. 


36  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

by  the  proportion  between  the  number  of  the  laboring 
population  and  the  amount  of  this  "  wages  fund." 
This  being  granted,  it  is  held  that  wages  can  only  be 
increased  by  one  of  two  ways  :  either  by  increasing 
that  portion  of  capital  devoted  to  the  payment  of  / 
wages  (the  wages  fund)  or  by  reducing  the  number  j 
of  laborers  among  whom  that  fund  is  to  be  divided. 
"  The  well-being  and  comfort  of  the  laboring  classes 
are,  therefore,  especially  dependent  on  the  relation 
which  their  increase  bears  to  the  increase  of  the  capital 
that  is  to  feed  and  employ  them.  If  they  increase 
faster  than  capital,  their  wages  will  be  reduced  ;  and 
if  they  increase  slower,  they  will  be  augmented.  .  .  . 
And  every  scheme  for  improving  the  condition  of  the  labor- 
er which  is  not  bottomed  on  this  principle,  or  which  has 
not  an  increase  of  the  ratio  of  capital  to  population  for 
its  object,  must  be  completely  nugatory  and  ineffectual,'''^ 

"  If  wages  are  higher  at  one  time  or  place  than  at 
another,  if  the  subsistence  and  comfort  of  the  class  of 
hired  laborers  are  more  ample,  it  is  for  no  other  reason 
than  because  capital  bears  a  greater  proportion  to  popu- 
lation. .  .  .  The  condition  of  the  class  can  be  bettered 
in  no  other  way  than  by  altering  that  proportion  to 
their  advantage  ;  and  every  scheme  for  their  beiiefit 
which  does  not  proceed  on  this  as  its  foundation  is,  for 
all  permanent  purposes,  a  delusion.''  f 

American  writers  have  mainly  followed  in  the  same 
strain.:]:     Professor  Perry,  who  may  be  taken  as  more 


*  McCuUoch's  "  Principles  of  Political  Economy,"  Part  III.,  sec. 
7,  p.  174- 

f  Mill's  "  Principles  of  Political  Economy,"  Book  II.,  ch.  ii,  §3. 

I  F.  A.  Walker  is  an  exception,  and  although  not  the  first  to  reject 
the  wages-fund  theory,  was  the  first  to  present  a  counter-theory,  which 
will  be  considered  in  the  next  section. 


IT  IS   THE  DOCTRINE   OF  LOW  WAGES.  37 

than  an  average  representative  of  American  econ- 
omists, accepts  this  theory  of  wages  as  taught  by  the 
English  writers  without  qualification.*  This  theory 
furnishes  the  employer  with  an  ever-available  defence 
against  raising  wages.  If  a  single  workman  asks  for 
an  increase  of  wages,  the  employer  may  sympathiz- 
ingly  assure  him  that  his  condition  ought  to  be  im- 
proved ;  but  on  the  authority  of  political  economy  he 
can  philosophically  say  :  "  I  would  gladly  raise  your 
wages  if  there  was  anything  in  the  wages  fund  with 
which  to  do  it  ;  but  you  know  the  wages  fund  is  all  di- 
vided among  you  laborers,  and,  therefore,  I  could  only 
increase  your  wages  by  reducing  those  of  some  other 
laborer,  and  that  would  be  a  great  injustice  to  him." 
And  should  the  laborers  generally  ask  for  an  increase 
of  wages,  this  theory  furnishes  the  employer  with  an 
equally  conclusive  reply.  He  can  say  to  them  :  **  If 
you  want  an  increase  of  ten  per  cent  in  your  wages, 
you  must  first  do  one  of  two  things  :  either  increase  my 
wages  fund  ten  per  cent,  or  reduce  your  own  numbers 
one  tenth."  Unless  they  will  accept  one  of  these  al- 
ternatives, he  can,  with  the  full  authority  of  economic 
science,  declare  that  no  increase  in  wages  is  possible. 

This  doctrine,  together  with  the  theory  taught  by 
these  writers,  "  that  the  rate  of  profits  can  never  be  in-\ 
creased  but  by  2.  fall  in  wages,'  f  goes  far  to  excuse  if' 
not  sustain  the  charge  "  that  the  current  political  econ- 
omy, instead  of  being  a  social  science,  is  little  else  but 
a  specious  argument  for  low  wages." 

It  maybe  said  that  this  doctrine  has  been  exploded. 


*  "  Political  Economy,"  ist  ed.,  pp.  122,  123. 

f  Ricardo,  "  Political  Economy  and  Taxation,"  ch.  7,  p.  75.     See 
also  Mill,  *'  Principles  of  Political  Economy,"  Book  II.,  ch.  15,  §  7- 


38  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

This  is  a  great  mistake.  No  doctrine  can  properly  be 
regarded  as  exploded  so  long  as  it  is  the  recognized 
basis  of  the  industrial  policy  of  the  civilized  world. 
The  theory  that  wages  are  determined  by  the  supply 
and  demand  of  labor  is  not  only  acted  upon  by  the 
capitalists,  but  it  is  accepted  by  the  workingmen  and 
reasoned  upon  by  standard  economists  down  to  this 
hour. 

In  fact,  the  idea  that  the  price  of  commodities  and  of 
labor  rise  according  as  the  demand  is  greater  and  falls 
as  it  is  less  than  the  supply,  is  all  but  universally  ac- 
cepted. Every  argument  by  economists  for  limiting 
the  population,  every  effort  by  capitalists  to  corner 
commodities  or  regulate  the  output  of  products,  is 
based  entirely  upon  this  idea.  And  every  strike  for 
higher  wages  is  only  the  practical  application  of  the 
same  doctrine  by  the  workingmen.  It  is  simply  an 
effort  to  increase  the  price  of  labor  by  limiting  the 
supply. 

When  the  laborers  combine  to  strike  and  prevent 
others  from  taking  their  places,  they  are  doing  exactly 
what  the  capitalists  do  when  they  attempt  to  corner 
commodities,  orarbitrarily  regulate  the  output  of  prod- 
ucts, or  impose  high  tariffs  upon  competing  producers. 
The  employers,  economists,  and  editors,  when  pouring 
out  their  unlimited  censure  upon  the  heads  of  the 
workingmen  for  inflicting  injury  upon  themselves  and 
the  community  by  the  mistaken  notion  that  strikes  can 
ever  permanently  increase  wages,  should  remember 
that  in  doing  this  the  workingmen  are  only  logically 
applying  the  vicious  doctrine  that  for  a  whole  century 
has  been,  by  both  practice  and  precept,  ground  into 
them  by  the  employing  classes. 

It  is  true  that  several  writers  have  taken  more  or 


JOHN  STUART  MILL'S  HALF  CONVERSION.        39 

less  pronounced  exception  to  certain  phases  of  this 
theory,  the  most  vigorous  and  successful  of  which  was 
made  by  Mr.  Thornton  in  his  work  **  On  Labor, ""^ 
which  was  sufficiently  strong  to  convert  John  Stuart 
Mill,  who  was  its  most  zealous  and  able  exponent. 
Even  Mr.  Thornton,  however,  only  rejected  one  half 
of  the  theory.  While  he  objected  to  that  part  of  the 
doctrine  which  affirms  that  **  no  less  than  the  full 
amount  of  the  wages  fund  can  be  paid  in  wages,"  both 
he  and  Mr.  Mill  continued  to  cling  to  the  other  half, 
which  says,  **  More  than  that  amount  cannot  possibly 
be  paid  in  wages."  ^^^ 

But  as  neither  of  them  offered  any  substitute  for 
that  portion  of  the  doctrine  they  had  rejected  except 
the  vague  idea  of  competition,  for  which  Thornton 
declares  "there  is  no  law,"  the  original  theory  sub- 
stantially retains  its  place  in  current  political  economy 
as  the  law  of  wages. 

.  So  pronounced  is  this  that  Professor  Perry,  one  of 
the  leading  economists  in  this  country,  in  a  revised 
edition  of  his  works  (1883)  reaffirms  the  whole  doc- 
trine, and  Professor  Cairnes,  one  of  England's  most 
learned  economists,  in  his  recent  work  f  makes  an 
elaborate  attempt  to  defend  the  wages-fund  theory  in 
its  original  entirety. 

In  his  argument  Professor  Cairnes  squarely  admits 
that  there  is  no  economic  law  or  force  to  prevent  any 
employer  from  appropriating  all  or  any  portion  of  the 
wages  fund  in  his  possession  to  any  other  purpose  than 
that  of  paying  wages  if  he  chooses  so  to  do,  and  says  '.% 


*  London,  1869. 

t  "  Some  Leading  Principles  in  Political  Economy,"  ch.  i.  Part  IL 

X  Ibid.,  p.  182. 


4©  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS, 

**  Undoubtedly  *  there  is  no  specific  portion  of  any  in- 
dividual's capital  which  the  owner  must  necessarily  ex- 
pend upon  wages.'  'There  is  no  law  fixing  the 
amount '  of  any  man's  *  domestic  expenditure,  and 
thereby  fixing  likewise  the  balance  available  for  in- 
dustrial operations. '  Nor  is  any  man  *  bound  to  spend  * 
in  the  payment  of  labor  *  the  utmost  he  can  afford  to 
spend.'" 

Then,  after  expressing  his  surprise  that  any  one 
should  ever  have  so  understood  the  wages-fund  theory, 
he  endeavors  to  show  that  the  error  of  the  assailants 
of  this  doctrine  all  arises  from  a  misunderstanding  of 
the  words  **  determination"  and  "  predetermination." 
Speaking  of  Mr.  Thornton  in  particular,  he  says  :* 
"  His  reasoning  from  beginning  to  end  proceeds  upon 
a  radically  erroneous  conception  of  the  nature  of  an 
economic  law,  of  what  is  meant  by  *  predetermination  ' 
and  *  limitation'  in  the  sphere  of  economic  action. 
A  *  law  '  in  political  economy  does  not  mean  eithe? 
legal  coercion  or  physical  compulsion,  or  yet  moral 
obb'gation,  nor  does  the  *  determination'  expressed 
in  economic  law  mean  the  necessary  realization  of  cer- 
tain results  independently  of  the  human  will.  What  an 
economic  law  asserts  is,  not  that  men  must  do  so  and 
so,  whether  they  like  it  or  not,  but  that  in  given 
circumstances  they  will  like  to  do  so  and  so  ;  that  their 
self-interest  or  other  feelings  will  lead  them  to  this  re- 
sult. The.  *  predetermination  '  in  question  is  of  that 
sort  which  leads  a  hungry  man  to  eat  his  dinner  or  an 
honest  man  to  pay  his  debts,  and  depends  for  its  ful- 
filment not  upon  external  compulsion  of  any  sort,  but 
upon  the  influence  of  certain  inducements  on  the  will, 

*  "  Some  Leading  Principles  in  Political  Economy,"  pp.  84,  85. 


PROF.    CAIRNES'S  DEFENCE  EXAMINED.  41 

our  knowledge  of  which  enables  us  to  say  how  in  given 
circumstances  a  man  will  act.  It  is  in  this  sense,"  he 
adds,  "  that,  speaking  for  myself,  I  understand  the 
*  predetermination  '  of  a  certain  portion  of  the  wealth 
of  a  country  to  the  payment  of  wages."  "It  is  in 
this  sense,"  he  says,  **  that  I  understand  *  predeter- 
mination,' "  Exactly  ;  but  what  is  "  this  sense  "f  The 
explanation  still  needs  explaining.  In  fact,  this  state- 
ment is  more  ingenious  than  logical,  and  tends  to  elude 
rather  than  elucidate  the  point ;  or,  to  use  Mr.  Cairnes's 
own  expression,  it  is  "  simply  beside  the  mark." 

The  question  at  issue  is  not  what  are  the  causes 
which  "  predetermine"  the  amount  paid  in  wages  ;  but 
is  the  amount  so  paid  **  predetermined  "  at  all  by  any 
cause?  Of  what  economic  importance  is  it  that  "a 
man  does  so  and  so  whether  he  likes  it  or  not,"  or 
**  that  he  likes  to  do  so  and  so  "?  How  can  it  affect 
the  question  under  consideration  whether  wages  are 
paid  through  **  external  compulsion"or  through  "  the 
influence  of  certain  inducements  on  the  will,"  if  they 
are  paid  ?  The  question  is  not  as  to  whether  or  not 
men  "  like  to  do  so  and  so,"  but  whether  they  always 
do  "so  and  so."  What  difference  does  it  make  to  the 
laborer  or  the  community  whether  an  employer  pays 
wages  against  his  will  or  not  ? 

In  truth,  men  seldom  pay  wages  because  **  they  like 
to  do  so,"  but  because  they  must  do  so  or  forego  some- 
thing they  like  still  better.  Economic  law,  Mr. 
Cairnes's  opinion  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,  does 
not  recognize  motives,  or  likes  and  dislikes  ;  it  is  con- 
cerned only  with  causes  and  their  effects. 

But  what  would  Mr.  Cairnes  have  us  understand  the 
term  "predetermination"  to  mean?  When  he  talks 
of  **  the  predetermination  of  a  certain  portion  of  the 


42  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

wealth  of  a  country  to  the  payment  of  wages,"  does  he 
not  mean  that  from  the  operation  of  some  cause,  of 
whatever  nature,  it  is  decided,  in  advance,  that  the 
whole  of  this  fund  must  or  will  surely  be  paid  out  as 
wages  ?  If  so,  in  what  does  his  position  differ  from 
that  of  Mr.  Mill  and  other  wages-fund  advocates  ?  If 
by  this  statement  Mr.  Cairnes  means  that,  through 
"  the  influence  of  certain  inducements  on  the  will," 
that  amount  is  sure  to  be  spent  in  wages,  it  is  logically 
the  same  as  that  of  Mr.  Mill  when  he  said  "  that 
amount  and  no  less  they  (the  wage-receivers)  cannot 
but  obtain."  And  his  statement  that  "there  is  no 
specific  portion  of  any  individual's  capital  which  the 
owner  must  necessarily  expend  upon  wages,  .  .  .  nor 
is  any  man  bound  to  spend  in  the  payment  of  labor 
the  utmost  he  can  afford  to  spend,"  is  as  complete, 
though  less  candid,  a  surrender  of  at  least  that  half  of 
the  wages-fund  doctrine  as  that  of  Mr.  Mill.  If,  how- 
ever, on  the  other  hand,  by  "the  'predetermination' 
of  a  certain  portion  of  the  wealth  of  a  country  to  the 
payment  of  wages,"  it  is  not  intended  to  mean  that  it 
is  previously  "  determined  "  or  decided  that  that 
amount  will  surely  be  spent  in  wages,  but  only  that  it 
may  and  possibly  or  even  probably  will  be  so  spent, 
what  construction  are  we  to  put  upon  the  following 
statement  :  **  T)\q  predetermination  in  question  is  of  the 
sort  which  leads  a  hungry  man  to  eat  his  dinner  or  an 
honest  man  to  pay  his  debts." 

If  every  employer  is  as  sure  "  to  spend  in  the  pay- 
ment of  labor  the  utmost  he  can  afford  to  spend  "  as  a 
hungry  man  is  to  eat  his  dinner,  there  can  be  little 
doubt  but  that  the  whole  amount  of  the  wages  fund 
will  always  be  spent  in  wages,  which  is  all  the  most 
orthodox    advocate    of    the    wages-fund  theory    ever 


THE  FUTILITY  OF  PROF.   CAIRNES'S  FLEA.       43 

claimed.  For  it  is  hardly  more  certain  that  an  apple 
will  fall  to  the  ground  than  that  a  hungry  man  will  eat 
his  dinner,  or  that  an  honest  man  will  pay  his  debts. 
But  in  order  to  interpret  this  statement  according  to 
the  higgling  and  hauling  of  Mr.  Cairnes's  special  effort 
to  show  that  predetermination  does  not  mean  prede- 
termination, we  must  not  say  a  hungry  man  will  eat 
his  dinner,  but  only  that  he  may  and  probably  will  do 
so,  and  that  an  honest  man  may  and  probably  will  pay 
his  debts. 

A  doctrine  which  can  only  be  sustained  by  a  use  of 
language,  according  to  which  it  is  doubtful  whether  a 
hungry  man  will  eat  his  dinner  or  an  honest  man  pay 
his  debts,  should  only  need  stating  to  insure  its  re- 
jection. 

But,  again,  if  the  word  "  predetermination"  is  not 
to  be  understood  to  mean  previously  decided,  and  the 
wages  fund  is  not  a  fixed  amount  to  be  "  uncondition- 
ally" devoted  to  the  payment  of  wages,  how  can  the 
general  rate  of  wages  be  regulated  by  the  proportion 
between  the  number  of  the  laboring  population  and 
the  amount  of  that  fund,  as  claimed  by  all  advocates 
of  this  doctrine,  Mr.  Cairnes  included  ?  It  would  be 
just  as  rational  to  say  the  price  of  shoes  depends  upon 
the  proportion  between  the  number  of  shoes  and  the 
amount  spent  upon  jewelry,  as  to  say  the  general  rate 
of  wages  is  decided  by  the  proportion  between  the 
number  of  laborers  and  the  amount  of  a  fund  that  is 
not  necessarily  spent  in  the  payment  of  wages.  For 
how  can  the  average  or  general  price  of  a  thing  be  de- 
termined by  the  proportion  between  a  definite  number 
and  an  indefinite  quantity  ? 

Yet  this  is  the  unenviable  position  of  Professor 
Cairnes  :  for  while  he  refuses  to  admit  with  Mill,  Faw- 


:ific  \ 

lUSt     \ 


44  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

cett,  Perry,  and  other  wages-fund  advocates  that  "  the  / 
sum  to  be  divided  is  a  fixed  amount,"  he  insists  upon 
their  conclusion,  which  wholly  depends  upon  the  truth 
of  that  statement — viz. ,  that  the  '  *  wages  of  each  de- 
pend solely  on  the  divisor — the  number  of  partici- 
pants ;"  for  he  says  :  "  The  aggregate  capital  being 
less,  the  wages  fund,  cceteris  paribus^  would  be  less  ; 
and  unless  laborers  consent  to  reduce  their  numbers, 
the  general  rate  of  wages  would  fall."  *  In  a  word, 
when  Mr.  Cairnes  admitted  that  "  there  is  no  specific 
portion  of  any  individual's  capital  which  the  owner  must 
necessarily  expend  upon  wages,"  and  that  no  man  is 
**  bound  to  spend  in  the  payment  of  labor  the  utmost 
he  can  afford  to  spend,"  he  allowed  the  whole  wages 
regulating  power  to  be  taken  out  of  his  wages-fund 
theory.  And  in  his  painfully  inconsistent  argument, 
in  which,  through  the  straining  of  language  and  twist- 
ing of  terms,  he  endeavors  to  hold  on  to  the  conclu- 
sions of  the  theory  after  its  basis  is  destroyed,  he  has, 
if  possible,  more  fully  demonstrated  the  utter  inde- 
fenceableness  of  the  wages-fund  doctrine  as  the  law  of 
wages. 

But  suppose  the  wages-fund  doctrine,  as  stated  by 
Mill,  were  true,  and  a  certain  amount  of  wealth,  which 
could  neither  be  increased  nor  diminished,  is  divided 
among  the  laborers  as  wages,  would  that  constitute  in 
any  economic  sense  a  law  of  wages  ?  Certainly  not. 
A  law  of  wages  must  do  more  than  show  how  the  ag- 
gregate amount  of  wealth  paid  in  wages  is  determined  ; 
it  must  explain  all  the  phenomena  connected  with 
wages.  To  say  that  a  given  amount  divided  equally 
among  a  given  number  will    yield  to  each  a  larger 

♦  "  Some  Leading  Principles  in  Political  Economy,"  p.  223. 


WAGES  NOT  PAID  FROM  CAPITAL.  45 


:/ 


amount,  according  as  the  number  of  participants  is 
diminished,  and  vice  versa^  is  merely  to  state  a  truism 
But  it  affords  no  explanation  of  why  some  laborers  get 
a  much  larger  portion  of  this  fund  than  others,  and 
why  the  same  laborers,  under  different  conditions  and 
in  different  places,  obtain  quite  different  amounts  for 
their  labor.  In  short,  it  explains  none  of  the  pertur- 
bations connected  with  wages.  Hence,  if  wholly  cor- 
rect as  to  fact,  it  would  in  no  sense  furnish  a  law  of 
wages. 

Nor  is  it  in  any  important  respect  strengthened  by 
the  Thornton-Mill  amendment.  In  the  revised  form 
this  theory  affirms  (i)  that  while  less  than  the  full 
amount  of  the  wages  fund  (**  actually  accumulated  ^ 
capital '^  "^  may  be  paid  in  wages,  "  no  more  than  that  y 
amount  can  possibly  be  expended  on  labor  ;"t  and 
(2)  that  wages  are  governed  by  the  relative  demand 
and  supply  of  laborers,  rising  as  the  demand  ("act- 
ually accumulated  capital  ")  exceeds  the  supply,  and 
conversely  falling  as  the  supply  of  laborers  exceeds 
the  demand.        -^ 

How  stand  the  facts  ?  First :  Is  it  true  that  laborers 
are  never  employed  until  the  necessary  capital  to  pay 
their  wages  has  been  **  actually  accumulated  "?  Is  i^^ 
true  that  *  *  no  more  can  possibly  be  expended  on  labor" 
than  is  then  and  there  in  the  wages  fund  ?  Most  \ 
certainly  not  /  On  the  contrary,  in  many  employ-  ' 
ments  the  reverse  is  the  rule.  In  new  countries, 
for  instance,  the  wages  fund — i.e.^  the  amount  of  capi- 
tal actually  then  and  there  available  for  the  payment 
of  wages — is  seldom  sufficient  to  pay  the  wages  of  all 


*  Perry's  "  Political  Economy,"  p.  122,  first  edition, 
f  Thornton  "  On  Labor,"  p.  85. 


46  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

the  laborers  employed  at  the  prevailing  rate  for  a 
month,  a  week,  or  even  a  day  in  advance,  nor  the 
day,  nor  week,  nor  even  the  month  after  the  labor  has 
been  performed,  without  drawing  a  part,  or  all  of  it, 
from  the  products  of  the  laborer  during  that  time.  It 
is  simply  because  the  previously  accumulated  capital 
(the  wages  fund)  is  wholly  inadequate  to  the  previous 
or  prompt  payment  of  wages  that  the  laborers  have  to 
wait  from  three  to  six  months  for  their  wages,  and 
sometimes  even  a  longer  time.  Nor  is  it  necessary  to 
go  to  Australia,  South  America,  or  any  other  foreign 
country  for  the  evidence  of  this  fact.  It  can  be  seen 
every  day  in  the  United  States.  It  is  the  common 
custom  among  our  Western  farmers  to  hire  laborers 
by  the  season  or  by  the  year  at  a  certain  stipulated  rate 
of  wages,  a  fraction  only  of  which  is  or  can  be  paid 
weekly  or  monthly,  and  the  balance  at  the  end  of  the 
term.  Nor  is  the  reason  for  this  mode  of  fractional 
payment  difficult  to  understand.  It  is  simply  because 
the  amount  of  his  previously  accumulated  capital 
(wages  fund),  which  is  available  for  the  payment  of 
wages,  is  too  small  to  enable  him  to  pay  the  wages  in 
full  every  week.  His  capital  is  mostly  invested  in 
stock,  tools,  machinery,  buildings,  etc.,  and  the  balance 
is  only  sufficient  to  enable  him  to  give  each  laborer  a 
portion  of  his  wages  each  week  or  month,  and  even  that 
is  frequently  paid  in  board  and  lodgings,  or  orders 
on  the  store,  which  is  only  another  form  of  credit  to 
the  farmer.  It  is  not  until  the  crop  is  harvested  and 
taken  to  market  that  the  farmer  is  able  to  pay  the  la- 
borers their  full  wages,  the  amount  of  which,  it  will  be 
remembered,  was  definitely  fixed  before  the  laborers* 
work  began.  If  the  amount  the  farmer  paid  in  wages 
was  limited  to  his  actual  "  wages  fund  "  on  hand  at 


WAGES  PAID  FROM  PRESENT  PRODUCT.  47 

the  time  he  hired  his  laborers,  it  is  clear  that  he  would 
generally  be  forced  to  pay  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  per 
cent  lower  wages,  or  else  employ  a  proportionately 
smaller  number  of  laborers.  But  why  does  he  pay  a 
higher  rate  of  wages  than  his  available  funds  will  war- 
rant ?  some  '*  wages-fund  "  disciple  may  inquire.  Why, 
simply  because  he  is  compelled  to  do  so  or  go  without 
^he  laborers.  The  reason  the  farmer  cannot  get  the 
work  done  for  less  is  quite  another  question,  which  will 
be  fully  considered  in  the  next  chapter  ;  it  is  sufficient 
for  the  present  purpose  to  say  that  he  is  unable  to  do 
so.  He  pays  the  least  he  can,  and  if  he  pays  a  higher 
rate  of  wages  than  his  **  wages  fund  "  will  afford,  it  is 
for  no  other  reason  than  that  he  cannot  get  it  for  less. 

Then  why,  it  may  be  asked,  does  he  not  employ 
fewer  laborers  ?  The  answer  to  this  is  equally  clear  : 
it  is  for  the  simple  reason  that  if  he  employed  only  the 
small  number  of  laborers  his  present  "  wages  fund  " 
would  enable  him  to  pay,  a  much  smaller  amount  of 
wealth  would  be  produced,  and  his  profits  at  the  end 
of  the  year  would  be  proportionately  less.  It  is  clear 
to  the  unsophisticated  farmer,  though  it  may  not  be  to 
Prof.  Cairnes,  that  by  paying  the  wages  of  the  laborer 
out  of  the  products  of  his  labor,  he  is  enabled  to  pay  a 
higher  rate  of  wages,  employ  a  larger  number  of  la- 
borers, produce  more  wealth,  and  have  a  much  larger 
amount  as  profit,  than  he  would  have  if  his  wages- 
paying  possibilities  were  limited  to  the  amount  of  cap- 
ital contained  in  his  previously  accumulated  **  wages 
fund." 

It  is,  of  course,  necessary  that  sufficient  capital  be 
accumulated  to  furnish  in  advance  the  tools,  stock,  etc., 
with  which  to  work,  but  this  is  not  true  of  wages. 
Labor  is  almost  invariably  supplied  on  credit,  wholly 


48  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

or  in  part,  and  that,  too,  without  either  bonds,  mort- 
gages, or  other  securities  being  given,  and  its  wages 
are  paid  out  of  its  own  future  productions,  and  not 
from  its  employer's  previous  accumulations. 

Nor  is  the  operation  of  this  principle  limited  to  new 
countries  or  to  agriculture,  but  it  obtains  with  equal 
force  in  old  countries,  and  in  the  most  modern  manu- 
facturing, mercantile,  and  commercial  industries. 

It  is  true  that  wages  are  paid  more  promptly  and 
with  greater  frequency  in  older  and  more  advanced 
manufacturing  countries  than  in  new,  thinly  settled 
agricultural  countries.  In  England,  for  instance,  the 
prevailing  custom  is  to  pay  wages  every  week,  or  at 
most  once  a  fortnight,  and  in  America  the  custom  in 
large  cities  and  manufacturing  centres  is  to  pay  wages 
at  least  once  a  month,  and  in  many  cases  they  are  paid 
fortnightly  or  weekly.  But  this  greater  promptness 
and  frequency  in  the  payment  of  wages  in  old  and 
manufacturing  than  in  new  and  agricultural  countries 
is  not  due  to  the  existence  of  a  greater  proportion  of 
accumulated  capital  available  for  the  payment  of  wages 
(wages  fund)  in  the  one  case  than  in  the  other,  but 
because  superior  facilities  for  prompt  and  easy  ex- 
change of  the  products  of  labor  exist  in  the  former 
than  in  the  latter  communities.  The  manufacturer  in 
New  York  and  New  England  can  put  his  goods  upon 
the  market  and  generally  sell  them  a  week  from  the 
time  they  leave  the  factory.  He  can,  therefore,  pay 
his  laborers  their  wages  out  of  the  proceeds  of  their 
current  labor  every  month,  or  even  fortnightly,  with 
far  less  inconvenience  and  difficulty  than  the  Australian 
or  Western  farmer  can  do  so  every  three  or  six  months. 

Clearly,  therefore,  it  is  not  only  true  that  more  can 
be  and  is  paid  in  wages  than  exists  in  the  previously 


THE   DOCTRINE  INADEQUATE  IF    TRUE.  49 

accumulated  wages  fund,  but  that  wages  are  not  drawn 
from  previously  accumulated  capital,  they  being  paid 
out  of  current  products  of  labor  and  that  portion  of 
capital  which  is  invested  in  tools  and  raw  material. 
Consequently,  neither  the  aggregate  amount  nor  the 
general  rate  of  wages  can  possibly  be  determined  by 
the  existence  or  condition  of  any  such  wages  fund. 

Second :  We  now  come  to  the  second  or  regulative 
phase  of  the  wages-fund  doctrine.  If  this  theory  were 
correct  as  a  general  statement  of  fact — i.e.^  if  it  were 
true  that  **  no  more  can  possibly  be  expended  on 
labor"  than  is  previously  accumulated  in  the  wages 
fund,  which  we  have  seen  it  is  not,  the  question  is, 
Does  it  afford  an  explanation  of  the  various  phenomena 
connected  with  wages  ?     We  answe;-  no  ! 

After  affirming  that  no  more  can  be  divided  among 
the  laborers  as  wages  than  is  contained  in  the  wages 
fund,  it  declares  that  that  division  is  determined  by  the 
proportion  between  the  number  of  laborers  and  the 
amount  in  that  fund,  as  already  shown  in  the  former  part 
of  this  chapter  ;*  in  other  words,  by  the  so-called  law  of 
supply  and   demand, f  according  to   which   wages  will 


See  J.  S.  Mill's  "  Principles  of  Political  Economy,"  Book  II., 
ch.  II,  §  3  ;  McCuUoch's  **  Principles  of  Political  Economy,"  Part 
III.,  sec.  7  ;  Perry's  "  Political  Economy,",  pp.  122,  123,  first  edi- 
tion ;  Fawcett's  "  Economic  Condition  of  the  British  Laborer," 
pp.  120,  137,  183.      > 

f  "  Finally,"  says  Mill,  "  there  are  commodities  of  which,  though 
capable  of  being  increased  or  diminished  to  a  great  and  even  an  un- 
limited extent,  the  value  never  depends  upon  anything  but  demand  and 
supply.  This  is  the  case  in  particular  with  the  commodity  Labor.'^ — 
^^  Principles  of  Political  Economy,^^  Book  III.,  ch.  2,  §  5. 

'  Demand  and  supply,  in  their  action  and  reaction  on  each  other, 
furnish  the  universal  law  of  wages,  as  of  everything  else  bought  and 
sold." — Perry's  ^*  Political  Economy, ^^  p.  233,  i8th  edition. 
,4 


50  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

never  rise  or  fall  except  as  the  demand  for  labor  is  in 
excess  of  the  supply,  or  vice  versa.  And,  to  use  the 
language  of  Mill,  "  this  rise  or  fall  continues  until  the 
demand  and  supply  are  again  equal  to  one  another"* 
— that  is  to  say,  the  rise  will  continue  until  the  wages 
fund  is  all  divided  among  the  laborers,  and  the  fall  will 
continue  until  the  fund  is  divided  among  all  the  labor- 
■ters.  Thus,  other  things  being  the  same,  if  the  num- 
ber of  laborers  is  reduced  the  rate  of  wages  will  rise, 
land  the  rise  will  continue  until  the  whole  of  the  fund 
jis  divided  among  the  reduced  number  of  laborers. 
And,  on  the  other  hand,  if  the  number  of  laborers  is 
increased  the  rate  of  wages  will  fall,  and  the  fall  will 
.continue  until  all  the  laborers  can  obtain  a  portion  of 
the  fund — i.e.^  until  the  rate  of  wages  is  sufficiently  low 
to  enable  the  amount  in  the  fund  to  give  emplpyment 
to  the  whole  of  the  increased  number  of  laborers  at 
some  price. t 

How  does  this  accord  with  the  facts  of  experience  ? 
Is  it  true  as  a  matter  of  history  (i)  That  wages  never 
rise  except  when  the  demand  for  labor  is  in  excess  of 
the  supply?  and  (2)  That  **  the  rise  or  fall  continues 
until  the  demand  and  supply  are  equal  to  one  an- 
other" ?  Since  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century 
there  has  never  been  a  time  (in  England)  when  the 
supply  of  labor  has  not  been  in  excess  of  the  demand. 

This  fact  is  abundantly  established  by  the  almost 
continuous  efforts,  legislative  and  otherwise,  to  deal 
with  enforced  idleness,  pauperism,  vagrancy,  etc.,  dur- 
ing the  last  four  hundred  years,  as  the  history  of  the 
poor   laws,    the    act   of    settlement,    the   Malthusian 


*  "  Principles  of  Political  Economy,"  Book  III.,  ch.  2,  §  4. 
f  See  Perry's  "  Political  Economy,"  pp.  122,  123,  first  edition. 


THE  FACTS  ALL  AGAINST   THE    THEORY.         51 

crusade,  trades-unionism,  and  modern  socialism  con- 
clusively show.  And  still,  during  this  period  when 
the  supply  of  labor  has  been  continuously  and  some- 
times frightfully  in  excess  of  the  demand,  wages,  in- 
stead of  falling,  have  risen  from  fivepence  to  five  shil- 
lings a  day,  or  about  twelve  hundred  per  cent,  being  in 
direct  opposition  to  the  wages-fund  theory.  Nor  is 
the  claim  that  "the  rise  or  fall  continues  until  the 
supply  and  the  demand  are  equal  to  one  another"  any 
nearer  the  truth.  There  has  never  been  a  time  but 
once  in  the  industrial  history  of  England,*  since  the 
first  dawn  of  the  wages  system,  in  the  twelfth  century, 
when  the  demand  for  labor  was  distinctly  in  excess  of 
the  supply.  That  was  in  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth 
century  (1348-50),  when  over  one  third  of  the  people 
were  stricken  down  by  the  pestilence  known  as  the 
"  Black  Death."  Did  wages  continue  to  rise  until  the 
demand  and  supply  were  equal  ?  Nothing  of  the 
kind.  Wages  only  rose  a  penny,  and,  in  some  rare 
cases,  perhaps  twopence  a  day,  although  labor  was  so 
scarce  that  "  crops  rotted  in  the  fields"  because  there 
was  no  one  to  gather  them.  And  even  this  small  rise 
was  not  due  to  the  scarcity,  as  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  when  the  supply  of  labor  again  became  in  excess 
of  the  demand,  wages  did  not  fall  again  to  their  pre- 
vious level. f  Not  even  in  the  worst  days  of  the  Tudors 
and  Stuarts,  or  at  any  time  since,  even  in  periods  of 
industrial  depressions,  when  enforced  idleness  has  been 
most  prevalent,  have  wages  ever  been  as  low  as  they 
were  during  that  time^  when  the  demand  for  labor  was 


*  We  take  England  because  its  industrial  history  is  more  extended, 
continuous,  and  complete  than  that  of  any  other  country, 
t  See  Chapter  IV.,  Part  II. 


52  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

more  in  excess  of  the  supply  than  at  any  other  time  in 
the  world's  history. 

Again,  if  it  were  true  that  wages  always  fall  when 
the  supply  of  labor  is  in  excess  of  the  demand,  en- 
forced idleness  or  able-bodied  pauperism  in  any  general 
or  permanent  sense  would  be  impossible,  because  wages 
would  not  stop  falling  until  the  wages  fund  was  divided 
among  all  the  laborers — 2>.,  until  all  the  laborers  were 
employed  at  some  wages  or  the  wages  system  merge 
back  into  slavery.  So  far  from  this  being  the  case, 
there  is  not  a  country  in  the  world  in  which  it  has 
ever  occurred.  We  do  not  say  that  there  never  was  a 
time  in  any  country  when  the  laborers  were  all  em- 
ployed, but  what  we  do  say  is  that  they  were  never  all 
so  employed  by  lowering  the  general  rate  of  wages. 
History  does  not  afford  a  single  instance  of  absorbing 
enforced  idleness  by  reducing  wages.  In  fact,  such  a 
thing  is  economically  impossible.  On  the  contrary, 
however,  although  enforced  idleness  (which  is  the  ex- 
cessive supply  of  labor)  has  been  more  or  less  general 
and  permanent,  as  is  shown  by  able-bodied  pauperism, 
wages  have  increased  several  fold  ;  clearly  showing,  not 
only  that  wages  do  not  necessarily  fall  when  the  supply 
of  labor  is  in  excess  of  the  demand,  but  that  they  may 
and  do  sometimes  even  rise  under  such  circumstances. 

Manifestly,  therefore,  as  it  is  not  true  that  the  ag- 
gregate amount  paid  in  wages  is  limited  to  the  amount 
of  "  previously  accumulated  "  capital  (the  wages  fund), 
and  as  the  general  rate  of  wages  is  not  determined  by 
the  proportion  between  the  number  of  laborers  and 
that  fund,  the  wages  fund  or  supply  and  demand 
theory,  either  as  originally  stated  or  subsequently 
amended,  is  wholly  inadequate  to  even  approximately 
explain  the  law  of  wages. 


FRANCIS  A.    WALKER'S   THEORY  STATED         53 


Section  II. — Francis  A.   Walker  s   Theory. 

Francis  A.  Walker,  who  is  one  of  the  most  liberal 
and  popular  economists  in  this  country,  is  a  pronounced 
opponent  to  the  wages-fund  doctrine.  Unlike  Mr. 
Thornton,  however,  he  was  not  content  to  merely  at- 
tack the  English  theory,  but  he  boldly  assumed  the 
task  of  furnishing  a  new  one  to  supersede  it. 

This  theory,  which  we  shall  now  briefly  consider,  will 
be  found  stated  in  Chapter  VIII.  of  his  "  Wages  Ques- 
tion"  (1876),  also  restated  in  Chapter  V.,  Part  IV.,  of 
his  **  PoUtical  Economy"  (1883).  In  presenting  the 
new  doctrine  Mr.  Walker  says  :*  The  "  popular  theory 
of  wages  ...  is  based  upon  the  assumption  that 
wages  are  paid  out  of  capital,  the  saved  results  of  the 
industry  of  the  past.  Hence,  it  is  argued,  capital  must 
furnish  the  measure  of  wages.  On  the  contrary,  I  hold 
that  wages  are,  in  a  philosophical  view  of  the  subject, 
paid  out  of  the  product  of  present  industry  ;  and  hence 
that  "^xo^wzWow  furnishes  the  true  measure  of  wages' 
Again  :f  **  The  employer  purchases  labor  with  a  view 
to  the  product  of  the  labor  ;  and  the  kind  and  amount  of 
that  product  determine  zvhat  wages  he  can  afford  tq  pay. 
...  If  that  product  is  to  be  greater,  he  can  afford 
to  pay  more ;  if  it  is  to  be  smaller,  he  must,  for 
his  own  interest,  pay  less.  .  .  .  Thus,"  he  adds,  "  it 
is  production,  not  capital,  which  furnishes  the  mo- 
tive for  employment  and  the  measure  of  wages.'"  % 
In  his  later  work  he  says  :§  "  Wages  equal  the  whole 
product  minus  rent,  interest,  and  profits."     "  In  this 


*  **  Wages  Question,"  p.  128.         %  The  italics  are  ours. 

f  Ibid.,^^.  129,  130.  §  "Political  Economy,"  p.  284. 


54  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS, 

vie  A^  the  laboring  class  receive  all  they  help  to  pro- 
duce, subject  to  deduction  on  the  three  several  ac- 
counts mentioned,"*  and  in  showing  how  the  amount 
the  laborer  receives  is  determined,  he  says  if  "In  de- 
termining how  much  in  the  shape  of  rent,  interest,  and 
profits  shall  be  taken  out  of  the  product  before  it  is 
turned  over  to  the  laboring  class  to  have  and  to  enjoy,  I 
hold  that  the  only  security  which  the  laboring  class  can 
have  that  no  more  will  be  taken  than  is  required  by  the 
economical  principles  governing  those  shares  respec- 
tively, is  to  be  found  in  full  and  free  competition,  each 
man  seeking  and  finding  his  own  best  market  unhin- 
dered by  any  cause,  whether  objective  or  subjective  in 
its  origin." 

From  the  above  it  will  be  seen  that  Mr.  Walker's 
doctrine  may  be  briefly  stated  as  follows  :  (i)  That 
wages  "  are  paid  out  of  the  product  of  present  indus- 
try," and,  therefore,  *'  production  furnishes  the  measure 
of  wages;**  (2)  "That  wages  equal  the  whole  prod- 
uct minus  rent,  interest  and  profits,"  and  (3)  That 
the  proportion  of  the  whole  that  will  be  left  for  the  la- 
borers depends  upon  "  free  competition." 

Now,  assuming  that  these  propositions  are  all  cor- 
rect, how  do  they  enable  us  to  explain  the  law  of 
fwages?  How  does  this  view  enable  us  to  understand 
(why  wages  are  lower  in  some  countries  than  in  others  ; 
lower  in  rural  districts  than  in  large  cities  ;  lower  in 
some  industries  than  in  others  in  the  same  localities  ; 
lower  in  agricultural  than  in  manufacturing  employ- 
ments ;  and  why  women's  wages  are  lower  than  men's  ? 

Let  us  see.  The  first  half  of  the  first  proposition, 
viz.,  "  that  wages  are  paid  out  of  the  product  of  pres- 

*  "  Political  Economy,"  p.  263.  f  Ibid.,  p  285. 


WAGES  PAID  BEFORE  PROFITS  OR  RENT.         55 

ent  industry,"  is  unquestionably  correct  ;  but  how 
does  it  necessarily  follow  from  this  that  **  production  is 
the  measure  of  wages"  ?  Because,  says  Mr.  Walker, 
wages  take  the  "  whole  product,  minus  rent,  interest, 
and  profits,"  and  these  three  remaining  the  same  the 
amount  paid  to  labor  would  increase  directly  with  the 
increase  in  the  aggregate  amount  produced. 

But  this  assumes  that  rent,  interest,  and  profits  are 
taken  out  of  the  product  before  wages  are  paid.  For 
this  assumption  Mr.  Walker  has  not  given  the  slight- 
est warrant  in  either  fact  or  reason.  Nay,  more,  he 
has  not  only  failed  to  show  that  rent,  interest,  and 
profits  are  taken  before  wages,  which  he  is  in  logic 
bound  to  do  before  he  has  the  right  to  thus  conclude, 
but  he  has  conclusively  shown  that  the  reverse  is  true. 
In  discussing  the  question  of  rent  in  the  same  work  * 
he  is  ultra-Ricardian,  and  takes  great,^pains  to  show 
that  rent  does  not  come  out  of  wages,  but  that  it  is 
what  is  left  after  wages  and  other  items  in  the  cost  of 
production  are  paid.  That  it  is  because  what  he  calls 
"  no-rent-land  "  will  only  yield  enough  to  pay  wages 
and  profits  that  rent  cannot  be  obtained  from  it,  ''  and 
that  the  amount  received  by  the  landlord  as  rent  is  not 
paid  either  by  the  agricultural  laborer  or  by  the  con- 
sumer of  the  produce,  whether  food,  fuel,  or  fibre,  "f 
Thus  Mr.  Walker,  like  a  "  Ricardian  of  Ricardians," 
as  he  styles  himself,  shows  that  wages  are  paid  before 
rent. 

If  we  turn  to  his  discussion  of  profits  we  shall  find 
that  Mr.  Walker,  with  the  full  measure  of  his  usual  vigor 
and  force,  insists  that  profits  are  not  taken  out  of  wages, 

*  "  Political  Economy,"  p.  213,  par.  244  ;  see  also  "Land  and  Its 
Rent,"  pp.  29,  30. 

t  "  Political  Economy,"  p.  248,  par.  278. 


56  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

but,  like  rent,  are  what  is  left  after  wages  are  paid.  He 
says  :  *  **  Do  profits,  then,  come  out  of  wages  ?  Not  at 
all.  The  entrepreneurs  of  the  lowest  industrial  grade  — 
the  no-profits  employers,  as  we  have  called  them — iniist 
pay  wages  sufficient  to  hire  laborers  to  work  under 
their  direction.  These  wages  constitute  an  essential 
part  of  the  cost  to  the  employer  of  the  production  of 
the  goods.  The  fact  that  these  wages  are  so  high  is  the 
reason  why  the  employers  are  unable  (their  skill  and 
power  in  organizing  and  energizing  labor  and  capital 
being  no  greater  than  they  are)  to  realize  any  profits 
for  themselves^     (The  italics  are  ours.) 

Can  anything  be  plainer  than  this  ?  Here  Mr.  Walk- 
er declares  that  the  reason  why  unsuccessful  employ- 
ers have  no  profits  is  because  the  product  is  all  taken 
in  wages  and  other  costs.  In  other  words,  it  is  because 
with  their  skill,  capital,  methods,  etc.,  they  were  un- 
able to  produce  more  than  would  cov^x  wages ^  etc., 
that  they  have  to  go  without  profit,  f 

It  will  be  observed,  therefore,  that,  according  to  Mr. 
Walker's  own  showing,  rents  and  profits  are  not  taken 
out  of  the  product  before  wages,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
they  consist  of  what  remains  after  wages  are  paid. 

Now,  what,  under  these  circumstances,  becomes  of 
Mr.  Walker's  theory  that  production  is  the  measure 
of  wages  ?  Why,  it  is  entirely  demolished.  So  far 
as  affording  any  true  explanation  of  the  laiv  of  wages, 
there  is  literally  nothing  left  of  it.     If  wages  are  paid 

*  "  Political  Economy,"  p.  254,  par.  284. 

t  In  this  he  is  unquestionably  correct.  Every  business  failure  is  a 
proof  of  it.  It  is  because  the  manufacturer  or  merchant,  after  paying 
wages  (which  legally  as  well  as  economically  has  the  first  claim)  has 
no  profits,  or  not  enough  to  pay  other  costs,  that  he  goes  into  bank- 
ruptcy or  leaves  the  business. 


PRODUCTION  NOT  THE  MEASURE  OF  WAGES.     57 

before  rent  and  profits,  as  Mr.  Walker  shows,  then, 
manifestly,  they  can  exercise  no  influence  in  deter- 
mining wages.  It  would  be  just  as  reasonable  to  say 
that  a  person  who  will  draw  water  from  my  well  to- 
morrow by  so  doing  will  limit  the  quantity  I  can  draw 
from  it  to-day.  Under  these  circumstances  to  say 
*'  that  wages  equal  the  whole  product  minus  rent,  in- 
terest and  profits  "  is  merely  to  utter  a  truism,  which 
conveys  no  more  information  than  would  the  announce- 
ment of  a  boy  who  hooked  a  single  fish,  that  his  catch 
equalled  all  the  fish  in  the  sea  minus  those  he  didn't  get. 

In  what  sense,  then,  is  production  the  measure  of 
wages?  The  mere  fact  that  wages  are  drawn  from 
production  does  not  make  production  the  measure  of 
wages.  True,  wages  cannot  be  more,  but  they  can  be 
and  are  less  than  production.  The  amount  produced 
may  determine  the  former,  but  it  clearly  does  not 
regulate  the  latter.  The  fact  that  there  is  but  a  hun- 
dred cannot  possibly  be  the  cause  of  my  not  having 
more  or  less  than  fifty.  Since  wages  are  the  first  to 
draw  upon  production,  and  since  they  do  not  take  all 
the  product,  the  question  is.  What  determines  the 
amount  or  the  proportion  that  they  do  take  ?  It  can- 
not be  production,  because  there  is  already  more  pro- 
duced than  they  take.  It  cannot  be  rent  or  profits, 
because,  as  Mr.  Walker  has  shown  us,  they  only  take 
what  is  left  after  wages  are  determined.  Then,  how 
the  amount  that  goes  to  wages  is  regulated  is  still  the 
question.  And  it  is  the  question  to  which  Mr.  Walk- 
er's theory,  stripped  of  the  errors  he  himself  explodes, 
affords  no  answer. 

Again,  in  order  to  sustain  his. position  that  wages  are 
determined  by  production,  he  points  to  the  fact  that 
wages  are  highest  where  production  is  largest.     Well, 


58  WEALTH  A^D  PROGRESS. 

if  wages  are  high  because  production  is  large,  why  is 
production  large  ?  The  answer  to  this  is  important, 
because  if  wages  depend  upon  production,  in  order  to 
raise  wages  we  must  know  how  to  increase  production. 
Now,  suppose  a  given  community  produce  a  million 
dollars'  worth  of  commodities  a  week  and  pay  half  a 
million  dollars  in  wages,  and,  after  a  few  years,  the 
product  rises  to  two  millions  and  wages  increase  to  a 
million  dollars  a  week,  if  we  ask  Mr.  Walker  why  the 
wages  increased  from  half  a  million  to  one  million  a 
week,  he  will  reply,  **  Because  the  product  was  doub- 
led." But  if  we  follow  with  the  second  question,  the 
answer  to  which  is  necessary  in  order  to  understand 
the  answer  to  the  first,  and  ask  *'  Why  the  product  was 
doubled  ?"  his  theory  has  no  reply.  But  if  we  leave 
him  a  moment  and  seek  the  true  answer  to  the  second 
question,  we  shall  find  that  it  proves  his  reply  to  the 
first  one  to  be  entirely  fallacious. 

Why  was  the  product  doubled  ?  Why  were  two 
millions  produced  instead  of  one  ?  The  answer  is  very 
simple.  The  second  million  was  produced  for  the  same 
reason  that  the  first  was,  viz.,  because  it  was  demanded, 
the  only  reason  why  anything  is  ever  continuously 
produced.  Then,  the  product  was  doubled  because 
the  demand  was  doubled.  Why  was  the  demand 
doubled  ?  Because  the  normal  consumption  of  the  mass- 
es (wage-receivers)  in  the  community,  which  is  com- 
mensurate with  and  indicated  by  wages,  was  doubled. 
Thus  we  find  that  instead  of  the  wages  or  consumption 
by  the  masses  being  governed  by  production,  as  Mr. 
Walker's  theory  affirms,  the  reverse  is  everywhere  true, 
and  production  is  determined  by  consumption,  or 
wages.* 


*  See  Chapter  II. 


LESS  CONSISTENT  THAN  THE  ENGLISH  THE  OR  F.  59 

Again,  if  it  were  true,  as  Mr.  Walker  would  have  us 
believe,  that  wages  rise  because  production  is  increased, 
such  a  thing  as  a  business  depression  would  be  impos- 
sible. For,  as  soon  as  the  warehouses  began  to  get 
overstocked,  wages  would  begin  to  rise,  and  the  stock 
would  soon  be  carried  off.  But  we  know  from  bitter 
experience  that  the  reverse  of  this  is  the  case  ;  that 
when  the  warehouses  begin  to  fill  up  factories  begin  to 
stop,  wages  fall,  and  *  *  hard  times y '  *  with  all  their  social 
evils,  overtake  us. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  whichever  way  we  consider 
Mr.  Walker's  theory  of  wages,  it  ia  wholly  inadequate 
to  explain  even  the  ordinary  facts  connected  with  the 
subject.  He,  however,  affirms  an  important  truth  not 
recognized  by  the  old  school,  viz.,  that  wages  are 
drawn  from  the  product  of  present  industry  instead  of 
from  a  wages  fund.  But,  in  attempting  to  prove  that 
because  wages  are  paid  out  of  present  industry,  there- 
fore "  production  is  the  measure  of  wages,"  he  fell  into 
one  of  the  cardinal  errors  of  the  old  doctrine,  which, 
having  assumed  that  wages  are  drawn  from  capital, 
affirmed  that,  therefore,  capital  is  the  measure  of 
wages.* 

In  order  to  sustain  this  assumption  Mr.  Walker 
found  it  necessary  to  forget  the  conclusions  he  had 
elsewhere  established,  and  adopted  the  most  obvious 
errors  of  Henry  George  by  inverting  the  natural  order 
of  economic  distribution.  Consequently,  so  far  from 
affording  any  explanation  of  the  true  law  of  wages, 
Mr.  Walker's  theory  is  really  less  complete,  more  in- 
consistent, and  quite  as  unsound  as  the  English  theory. 

*  "  Wages  Question,"  p.  128. 


6o  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 


Section  II L — Henry  George's  Theory, 

Mr.  George's  theory  of  wages,  briefly  stated  in  his 
own  words,  is  as  follows  :*  "In  their  degree  wages 
rise  and  fall  in  obedience  to  a  common  law.  What  is 
this  law  ?  The  fundamental  principle  of  human  action 
— the  law  that  is  to  political  economy  what  the  law  of 
gravitation  is  to  physics — is  that  men  seek  to  gratify 
their  desires  with  the  least  exertion.  .  .  .  Now,  under 
this  principle,  what,  in  conditions  of  freedom,  will  be 
the  terms  at  which  one  man  can  hire  others  to  work 
for  him  ?  Evidently  they  will  be  fixed  by  what  the  men 
could  make  if  laboring  for  themselves.  .  >  ,  Thus  the 
wages  which  an  employer  must  pay  will  be  measured 
by  the  lowest  point  of  natural  productiveness  to  which 
production  extends,  and  wages  will  rise  or  fall  as  this 
point  rises  or  falls.  .  .  .  Here,  then,  we  have  the  law 
of  wages  as  a  deduction  from  a  principle  most  obvious 
and  universal  ;  that  wages  depend  upon  the  margin  of 
cultivation  ;  that  they  will  be  greater  or  less  as  the  prod- 
uce which  labor  can  obtain  from  the  highest  natural 
opportunities  open  to  it  is  greater  or  less,  flows  fcom 
the  principle  that  men  will  seek  to  satisfy  their  wants 
with  the  least  exertion." 

After  devoting  seven  pages  to  emphasizing  the  above 
idea,  he  restates  his  whole  conclusions  thus  :t  *'  The 
demonstration  is  complete.  The  law  of  wages  we  have 
thus  obtained  as  the  corollary  of  the  law  of  rent,  and 
it  completely  harmonizes  with  the  law  of  interest.  It 
is  that  wages  depend  upoji  the  margin  of  production^  or 


*  "  Progress  and  Poverty, "^  pp.  150,  151,  152,  popular  edition, 
t  Ibid.y  pp.  156,  157,  popular  edition. 


HIS  THEORY  STATED  IN  HIS  OWN  WORDS.        ^i 

Upon  the  produce  which  labor  can  obtain  at  the  highest 
point  of  natural  productiveness  open  to  it  without  the 
payment  of  rent.'' "^ 

To  still  further  emphasize  and  enforce  this  theory, 
he  resolves  it  into  three  formal  propositions  as  fol- 
lows :t 

"  Where  land  Is  free  and  labor  is  unassisted  by  capi- 
tal the  whole  produce  will  go  to  labor  as  wages. 

"  Where  land  is  free  and  labor  is  assisted  by  capital, 
wages  will  consist  of  the  whok  produce,  less  that  part 
necessary  to  induce  the  storint  up  of  labor  as  capital. 
.  **  Where  land  is  subject  to  oJlnership  and  rent  arises, 
wages  will  be  fixed  by  what>labor  could  secure  from 
the  highest  natural  opportunities  open  to  it  without 
the  payment  of  rent." 

Now,  it  will  be  seen  from  the  above,  all  of  which  is 
in  Mr.  George's  own  words,  that  his  doctrine  of  wages 
affirms  three  propositions  : 

First.  That  wages — the  laborer's  income,  when  work- 
ing for  an  employer — where  land  is  free,  is  determined 
by  what  l*e'  could  obtain  by  working  for  himself  on 
the  best  land  obtainable. 

Second.  That  wages,  where  land  is  subject  to  private 
ownership  and  rent  is  paid,  are  determined  by  what 
the  laborer  could  procure  from  the  best  land  obtainable 
without  paying  rent. 

Third.  That  as  private  ownership  in  land  extends 
and  rent  rises,  the  margin  of  cultivation  is  lowered  ; 
hence,  tKe'amount  obtainable  from  free  or  "  no-rent" 
land  dimijiishes  and  wages  fall. 

From  these  propositions  it  follows,  as  a  logical  ne- 
cessity : 

*  The  italics  are  his  own. 

\  "  Progress  and  Poverty,"  pp.  156,  157,  popular  edition. 


62  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

r     (i)  That  wages  will  always  be  the  highest  where  land 
'lis  not  subject  to  private  ownership,  or  where  the  best 
land  can  be  had  free  of  rent. 

(2)  That  where  private  ownership  of  land  obtains, 
and  rent  is  paid,  wages  will  diminish,  or  at  least  be  ar- 
rested as  rent  increases  ;  consequently,  where  rent  is 
the  highest  wages  will  be  the  lowest ;  or 

(3)  That  where  all  land  is  subject  to  ownership  and 
pays  rent,  wages  will  be  equal  to  what  the  laborer 
could  obtain  from  the  poorest  land,  minus  the  rent. 
Consequently,  the  difference  in  wages  in  different  com- 
munities depends  entirely  upon  the  difference  in  the 
productivity  of  the  "  no-rent"  land. 

(4)  Therefore,  the  only  way  real  wages  can  be  in- 
creased is  by  reducing  ^f^abolishing  rent,  or,  as  Mr. 
George  puts  it,  abolishing  **  the  private  ownership  in 
land." 

This  doctrine,  whatever  else  may  be  said  of  it,  has 
the  merit  of  novelty,  and,  unlike  Mr.  Walker's,  is  at 
least  consistent  with  the  general  teachings  of  its  author. 
Indeed,  it  is  a  necessary  part  of  Mr.  George's  scheme 
to  make  all  economic  movement  and  social  progress 
depend  upon  rent  or  the  private  ownership  of  land. 

But  the  question  that  is  more  important  than  its 
consistency  with  itself  or  with  the  general  economic 
doctrines  of  its  author  (which  we  have  elsewhere 
shown*  to  be  mainly  fallacious)  is  its  consistency  with 
ascertained  facts  and  well-established  principles. 

Is  the  doctrine  true,  and  does  it  afford  an  ex- 
planation of  industrial  phenomena  ?  is  the  question, 
v^oes  it,  for  instance,  explain  why  wages  have  risen 


*  See   article  in  the   Eorum   (N.   Y.),    for   March,    1887,    entitled 
Henry  George's  Economic  Heresies." 


WILL  THE  THEORY  EXPLAIN  THE  FACTS?       (>2> 

in  some  countries  and  not  in  others  during  the  last  two 
hundred  years  ;  why  wages  are  higher  in  some  indus- 
tries than  in  others  in  the  same  locaHties,  and  differ- 
ent in  the  same  industries  in  different  localities  ;  why 
they  are  higher  in  large  than  in  small  cities  ;  and 
higher  in  manufacturing  than  in  agricultural  countries 
and  districts  ;  and  why  men's  wages  in  the  same  in- 
dustries and  under  the  same  conditions  are  uniformly 
higher  than  those  of  women  ?  No  doctrine  which 
cannot  answer  these  questions  can  furnish  a  scientific 
or  philosophic  explanation  of  the  economic  law  of 
wages.  Can  Mr.  George's  theory  stand  this  test  ? 
Let  us  see.  We  will  take  the  propositions  in  the  order 
named  above. 

(i)  Is  it  true,  then,  that  wages  {i.e.^  the  income  of 
the  laboring  classes)  are  the  highest  where  land  is  not 
subject  to  private  ownership  and  where  no  rent  is  paid 
for  its  use  ? 

The  most  elementary  acquaintance  with  industrial 
history  is  sufficient  to  prove  that  the  very  opposite  is 
everywhere  the  case. 

There  never  was  a  time  nor  place  in  the  world  when 
land  was  not  subject  to  private  ownership,  and  hence 
no  rent  paid  for  its  use,  that  the  laborer's  wages  were 
half  or  even  one  tenth  as  much  as  they  are  to-day  in 
England  and  the  United  States,  where  rents  are  the 
highest  of  anywhere  in  the  world.  "  Where  land  is 
free  and  labor  is  unassisted  by  capital,"  says  Mr. 
George,  *'  the  whole  produce  will  go  to  labor  as  wages." 
This  is  true  ;  and  whenever  or  wherever  those  condi- 
tions do  or  did  exist  the  laborer  received  the  least  he 
ever  got  in  the  world.  Witness  the  tribal  communi- 
ties of  Australia,  India,  and  Africa,  the  Esquimaux, 
the   Patagonians,    and    our   American    Indians.     The 


64  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

facts  on  this  point  are  too  obvious  to  need  re- 
counting, even  to  the  most  uninitiated  observer.  It  Is 
a  notorious  fact  in  universal  history  that  the  nearer 
we  find  man  to  communal  ownership  of  property,  the 
nearer  is  he  to  savagery  and  starvation.  I  do  not  say 
that  communal  ownership  of  property  is  the  cause  of 
his  barbarism,  but  manifestly  it  does  not  save  him 
from  it,  as  Mr.  George  would  have  us  suppose.  On 
:this  point  Mr.  George,  like  many  others  in  whom 
sentiment  dominates  over  reason,  and  feeling  over  facts, 
appears  to  assume  that  if  the  laborer  receives  all  he 
produces  he  necessarily  has  one  third  more  than  when 
he  only  obtains  two  thirds  of  it.*  Nothing  could  be 
farther  from  the  facts  in  the  case.  In  any  state  of  so- 
ciety where  the  laborer  receives  all  the  product  it  is 
where  he  produces  it  all.  And  wherever  all  the  wealth 
is  produced  by  human  labor  and  none  of  it  by  capital, 
i,e,^  by  machinery,  the  whole  product  per  capita  is  sure 
to  be  very  small,  as  in  India,  China,  Africa,  Patagonia, 
Fiji  Islands,  etc.  And  wherever  a  large  proportion  of 
the  wealth  is  produced  by  machinery  or  capital,  the 
product  per  capita  is  sure  to  be  very  large,  as  in  Amer- 
ica, England,  and  other  machine-using  countries.. f 

If  the  laborer  in  the  former  countries  got  the  whole 
product  he  would  receive  less  than  one  tenth  as  much 
as  the  laborer  in  the  latter  countries  would  get  if  he 
only  obtained  half  the  product. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  universally  true  in  all  in- 
dustrial communities  that  where  the  laborer  obtains 
the  whole  product  he  gets  far  less — often  seven  tenths 
less — than  where  he  only  obtains  one  half  of  it.  It 
should   always  be  remembered  that  wages   are  high 

*  See  Chapter  I.,  Part  I.  \  See  Chapter  II.,  Part  I. 


THE  FACTS  ARE  AGAINST   THE    THEORY.         65 

or  low,  the  laborer  is  rich  or  poor,  not  according  as  he 
receives  a  large  or  small  proportion  of  the  total  prod- 
uct, but  according  as  the  amount  he  actually  receives 
is  great  or  small.  The  wages  of  the  laborer  who, 
with  the  aid  of  machinery,  produces  four  dollars' 
worth  of  wealth  a  day  and  receives  two  dollars,  are 
twenty  times  (two  thousand  per  cent)  higher  than  those 
of  the  laborer  who  by  hand  labor  produces  ten  cents' 
worth  of  wealth  a  day  and  gets  it  all.  Therefore, 
while  it  is  true  that  before  land  was  "  subject  to  pri- 
vate ownership"  and  rent  began  to  be  paid  or  capital 
was  employed  in  production,  "  the  whole  product  went 
to  the  laborer  as  wages, "  it  is  not  true  that  wages  were 
higher,  but,  on  the  contrary,  that  they  were  very  much 
lower  then  than  they  ever  have  been  since  rent  began 
to  be  paid. 

(2)  Is  it  true  that  where  private  ownership  of  land 
obtains  and  rent  is  paid,  that  wages  diminish  or  even 
stop  rising  as  rent  increases  ? 

Not  at  all,  but  industrial  data  show  it  to  be  just  the 
reverse.  Rents  are  everywhere  the  highest  in  large 
cities,  and  it  is  precisely  there  where  wages  reach  their 
maximum  the  world  over  without  a  solitary  recorded 
exception.  The  same  is  true  of  agricultural  rents. 
They  are  the  highest  in  the  vicinity  of  cities  and  man- 
ufacturing centres,  and  it  is  precisely  there  where  the 
wages  of  agricultural  laborers,  as  all  industrial  statistics 
show,  are  the  highest  in  every  country,  even  in  India.* 
In  fact,  on  this  point  Mr.  George's  theory  is  directly 

*  See  Buchanan's  **  Travels  Through  the  Countries  of  Mysore,  Ca- 
nara  and  Malabar,"  Vol.  I.,  pp.  124,  125  ;  Leone  Levi's  "  Earnings 
and  Wages,"  and  Rogers's  "  Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages," 
p.  172,  show  the  same  to  be  true  in  England,  and  it  is  proverbially 
true  in  this  country. 


66  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

Opposed  to  all  the  known  facts  in  the  case  in  all  coun- 
tries under  normal  economic  conditions. 

(3)  Is  it  true  that  wages  **  are  fixed,"  as  Mr.  George 
avers,  "  by  what  the  men  could  make  if  laboring  for 
themselves"  ? 

The  answer  to  this  question  seems  too  obvious  to 
need  stating,  and  yet  there  is  a  large  number  -of 
workingmen  who  have  not  the  time  or  opportunity 
for  study,  or  mental  training  necessary  to  enable  them 
to  master  the  subtleties  of  economics,  who  have  been 
misled  by  the  ingenuity  with  which  it  has  been  pre- 
sented, into  accepting  this  statement,  and  to  a  consid- 
erable extent  are  regarding  with  favor  the  propositions 
for  reform  based  upon  it.  Indeed,  it  would  almost 
seem  as  if  Mr.  George  himself  believed  the  statement. 
After  declaring  that  *  *  this  law  of  wages  carries  with  it 
its  own  proof  and  becomes  self-evident  by  mere  state- 
ment," he  says  :*  "  The  average  man  will  not  work  for 
an  employer  for  less,  all  things  considered,  than  he  can 
earn  by  working  for  himself  ;  nor  yet  will  he  work  for 
himself  for  less  than  he  can  earn  by  working  for  an 
employer."  With'the  obvious  feeling  that  this  logi- 
cally seals  the  case,  he  adds  :  **  And  hence  the  return 
which  labor  can  secure  from  such  natural  opportunities 
as  are  free  to  it  inust  fix  the  wages  which  labor  every- 
where gets. 

Clearly  Mr.  George  labors  under  the  belief  that  he 
has  here  stated  the  proposition  from  the  two  opposite 
points  of  view,  viz.,  that  of  both  the  laborer  and  the 
employer.  But  he  has  done  nothing  of  the  kind.  In- 
stead  of   stating  the  case    for  both    the  laborer  and 


*  "  Progress  and   Poverty,"  p.    157,  popular  edition.     The  italics 
are  ours. 


A   DELUSIVE  PRESENTATION,  67 

employer,  as  he  thinks  to  do,  he  has  in  different 
phraseology  merely  stated  the  same  thing  twice  for  the 
laborer. 

True,  "  the  average  laborer  will  not  work  for  an  em- 
ployer for  less,  all  things  considered,  than  he  can  earn 
by  working  for  himself.  Nor  yet  will  he  work  for  him- 
self for  less  than  he  can  earn  by  working  for  an  em- 
ployer.'* But  these  statements  only  affirm  what  the 
laborer  will  or  will  not  do.  How  about  the  employer? 
Will  he  give  the  laborer  more  than  he  can  earn  work- 
ing for  himself  ?  That  is  the  question  Mr.  George  did 
not  ask — the  true  answer  to  which  changes  the  whole 
face  of  the  subject.  If  Mr.  George  could  have  shown 
that,  as  the  laborer  will  not  work  for  -an  employer  for 
less,  so  the  employer  will  not  give  him  more  than  he 
can  earn  working  for  himself,  the  case  would  have 
been  logically  closed,  and  what  the  laborer  could  make 
working  for  himself  would  everywhere  fix  what  he 
could  get  working  for  an  employer. 

But  this  is  exactly  what  he  does  not  do,  and  for  the 
best  of  all  reasons,  viz.,  that  it  is  impossible  to  do  it. 
Now,  if  it  is  true  that  the  employer  can  and  will  pay 
the  laborer  more  than  he  can  get  working  for  himself, 
then  Mr.  George's  whole  structure  vanishes  ;  because 
in  that  case  what  the  laborer  could  earn  working  for 
himself  would  have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  decid- 
ing what  his  wages  would  be  when  working  for  another. 

Now,  then,  what  are  the  facts  ?  Is  it  true,  as  Mr. 
George  assumes,  that  the  employer  does  not  pay  the 
laborer  more  than  he  could  make  by  working  for  him- 
self ?     Most  certainly  it  is  not  true. 

Other  things  being  the  same,  the  average  laborer 
will  work  for  himself  in  preference  to  being  employed 
by  a  boss.     It  is  only  because  he  can  obtain  more  by 


68  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS, 

working  for  another  than  by  employing  himself  that 
he  will  consent  to  do  so.  Did  the  hand-loom  weavers 
abandon  their  looms,  and  their  wives  and  daughters  the 
spinning-wheels,  and  go  to  work  in  the  factory  because 
they  preferred  to  work  for  an  employer  ?  Not  at  all  ! 
On  the  contrary,  they  did  everything  in  their  power 
to  avoid  it.  Indeed,  it  was  to  prevent  this  that  the 
hand-loom  weavers  went  from  town  to  town  in  Eng- 
land in  mobs  \>x&2}^\vi^*' steam-looms.''  They  only 
consented  to  go  into  the  factory  when  they  were 
starved  out  by  their  productions  being  undersold  by 
those  of  the  factory.  In  other  words,  because  the  em- 
ployers would  pay  them  more  than  they  could  earn 
working  for  themselves. 

If  the  wages  of  the  spinners  and  weavers  to-day  were 
governed  by  what  they  could  get  by  working  for  them- 
selves they  would  not  receive  one  fourth  of  their  pres- 
ent wages.  The  same  is  true  of  the  wages  in  every 
other  industry  in  which  large  capitals  and  machinery  are 
employed. 

Is  it  true  that  the  average  workman,  employed  in  the 
manufacture  of  hardware,  pottery,  furniture,  glass, 
paper,  carpets,  silks,  and  broadcloths,  the  workers  in 
gold  and  silverware,  jewelry,  brass,  iron,  tin,  etc.,  the 
carpenters,  masons,  bricklayers,  machinists,  engineers, 
and  the  thousand-and-one  other  mechanics  who  work 
for  employers,  only  obtain  as  much  in  wages  as  they 
could  get  by  working  for  themselves,  either  in  the  same 
or  any  other  occupations  open  to  them  ?  The  idea  is 
so  obviously  opposed  to  the  commonest  facts  of  every- 
day experience,  that  to  seriously  mention  it  is  to  at 
once  appear  absurdly  ridiculous. 

Is  there  any  truth  in  Mr.  George's  last  proposition, 
which  he  so  confidently  affirms,  and  upon  the  truth  of 


THE    THEORY  HISTORICALLY  BASELESS.  69 

which  his  whole  theory  depends,  viz.,  that  **  where 
land  is  subject  to  ownership  and  rent  arises,  wages  will 
be  nxed  by  what  labor  could  secure  from  the  highest 
natural  opportunities  open  to  it  without  the  payment 
of  rent"  ?  Now,  if  there  is  any  truth  in  this  proposi- 
tion, the  wages  in  all  industries  will  be  identical  with, 
or,  at  least,  very  similar  to,  what  the  average  laborer 
can  obtain  from  the  land  which  can  be  had  for  nothing. 
Clearly,  if  this  were  true,  the  wages  of  agricultural  la- 
borers would  at  least  be  as  high  as  those  in  any  other 
industry,  especially  as  they  are  the  standard  by  which 
all  others  are  **  fixed."  The  notorious  fact,  however, 
is  that  they  are  everywhere  the  lowest.  There  is  not 
a  country  in  the  world  in  which  the  wages  of  artisans 
are  not  higher  than  those  of  the  laborers  employed  in 
agriculture.  It  is  true  in  every  country  in  continental 
Europe.  In  England  the  fact  is  simply  notorious  that 
the  wages  of  the  agricultural  laborers  there  are  little 
over  one  half  those  of  mechanics  and  artisans.  In  this 
country  the  wages  or  incomes  of  the  farm  laborers  and 
small  farmers  who  work  for  themselves,  as  a  class,  are 
not  only  lower  than  in  any  other  occupation,  but  in 
many  cases  they  are  nearly  one  half  less. 

Again,  if  "  the  wages  which  labor  everywhere  gets" 
are  fixed  by  what  the  laborer  can  secure  from  no-rent , 
land,  why  are  the  wages  of  carpenters,  painters, 
masons,  bricklayers,  tailors,  printers,  etc.,  higher  in 
this  country  than  they  are  in  Europe,  higher  in  New 
York  than  in  smaller  cities,  and  higher  in  large  towns 
than  in  the  rural  districts,  and  everywhere  higher  than 
those  of  the  farm  laborer  ?  If  the  wages  of  the  factory 
operative  and  those  of  the  carpenter,  painter,  mason, 
and  plumber  are  all  *'  fixed"  by  what  the  average  labor- 
er can  secure  from  the  best  no-rent  land,  why  are  those 


70  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

of  the  former  from  seventy-five  cents  to  one  dollar  a 
day  less  than  those  of  the  latter,  or  the  wages  of 
women  everywhere  so  much  lower  than  those  of  men  ? 
Indeed,  if  wages  were  so  determined  these  striking 
differences  would  be  impossible.  The  facts  nowhere 
sustain  this  absurd  theory.  Industrial  data  everywhere 
show  that  instead  of  wages  being  governed  by  or  are 
equal  to  what  the  laborer  could  get  from  land  obtain- 
able rent  free,  they  nowhere  sustain  any  recognizable 
relation  to  it,  and  are  everywhere  much  higher  and 
frequently  double  that  amount. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  in  whatever  way  we  con- 
sider Mr.  George's  theory  of  wages,  we  find  it  to  be 
not  merely  inadequate  to  explain  the  facts,  but  every- 
where directly  controverted  by  them. 


CHAPTER  II. 

WAGES  AND  THE  LAW  OF  WAGES. 

Section  I. — Wages  Defined, 

In  any  scientific  or  philosophic  view  of  the  subject, 
the  true  theory  of  wages  must,  as  already  observed, 
not  only  explain  how  the  aggregate  amount  of  wealth 
that  goes  to  labor  is  determined,  but  it  must  also  ac- 
count for  the  variations  in  the  general  rate  of  wages  in 
different  countries,  industries,  localities,  etc.,  which, 
as  we  have  seen  in  the  last  chapter,  the  popular  theories 
have  failed  to  do.  In  short,  the  true  theory  of  wages 
must  fully  set  forth  the  general  principles  upon  which, 
under  all  normal,  social,  and  economic  conditions,  the 
movement  of  wages  takes  place,  and  explain  the  law 
or  order  of  that  movement,  and  the  social  influences 
which  tend  to  impel  or  retard  it. 

Before  attempting  to  discuss  the  law  by  which  wages 
are  governed,  it  may  be  well  to  explain  what  con- 
stitutes wages,  or,  at  least,  what  we  wish  the  term  to 
be  understood  to  mean  when  used  in  this  work.  This 
is  the  more  necessary,  because  there  is  no  general 
agreement,  even  among  economists,  as  to  the  exact 
meaning  which,  in  economic  science,  is  to  be  attached 
to  the  term  wages.  It  is  held  by  some  that  everything 
is  wages  which  a  person  receives  in  return  for  his  labor. 
Because  all  wages  are  the  return  for  labor,  it  is  held 


72  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

that  all  return  for  labor  is  wages.*  According  to  this 
signification  of  the  term,  if  a  man  plants  corn  or 
catches  fish,  the  corn  raised  or  the  fish  caught,  being 
the  return  for  his  labor,  are  his  "  wages y'*  just  as  much 
as  would  be  the  amount  he  received  when  working  for 
an  employer  for  a  stipulated  sum. 

Now,  this  definition  is  not  only  inconvenient  for  the 
purposes  of  economic  reasoning,  but  it  is  incorrect ;  be- 
cause it  regards  two  things  as  identical  which  are  es- 
sentially different,  both  in  fact  and  in  the  influences  by 
which  they  are  determined.  It  is  true  that  the  corn 
or  fish  and  the  amount  paid  by  the  employer  are  each 
the  return  for  service,  but  the  amount  the  laborer  will 
receive  under  the  two  sets  of  circumstances  is  governed 
by  different  principles,  and  may  be  very  different  in 
amount.  The  fisherman  or  farmer  who  works  for  him- 
self receives  the  whole  produce,  be  it  little  or  much. 
Hence  his  income  is  decided  wholly  by  the  product  of 
his  own  labor.  But  as  the  man  who  works  for  an  em- 
ployer does  not  own  the  products  of  his  labor,  he 
receives  as  his  reward  a  stipulated  amount,  which  is 
agreed  upon  in  advance,  and  which  may  be  either  more 
or  less,  but  it  is  seldom  the  same,  as  the  product. 
Thus,  while  the  income  of  the  fortner  is  determined  by 
what  his  labor  produces,  that  of  the  latter  depends 
upon  what  another  will  consent  to  give  for  it.  In 
other  words,  the  man  who  works  for  himself  sells  the 
products  of  his  labor,  while  he  who  works  for  another 
sells  nothing  but  his  labor,  or  service.  Hence,  the  in- 
come of  the  former  is  the  whole  value  of  what  his  labor 
produces,  while  that  of  the  latter  is  only  the  value  or 
price  of  his  labor  as  such,  which  is  commonly  and  very 

*  This  is  one  of  the  first  mistakes  Mr.  George  makes  in  connection 
with  wages.  See  "  Progress  and  Poverty,"  p.  39,  popular  edition. 
Mr.  Walker,  however,  does  not  make  this  mistake. 


COMMON-SENSE    USE   OF   THE    TERM    WAGES.    73 

properly  called  wages.  To  confound  these  two  kinds 
of  income,  which  are  thus  essentially  different  in  char- 
acter, and  determined  by  different  influences — one  be-j 
ing  a  contingent  and  the  other  a  stipulated  amount — \ 
must  necessarily  lead  to  confusion  and  error.  There- 
fore, in  order  to  avoid  all  misunderstanding  on  this 
point,  I  define  wages  as  tJie  value  or  price  of  labor y  oA 
service  as  such.  Value*  (price),  in  modern  society,  or! 
wherever  exchanges  are  made  through  the  medium  of 
money,  is  essentially  the  same,  whether  applied  to 
commodities  or  labor.  In  economics  value  never  ex- 
presses anything  but  the  ratio  in  which  different  quan- 
tities will  exchange  for  one  another.  Wages,  the  price 
or  value  of  labor,  therefore,  is  not  what  the  laborer  pro-i 
duces,  nor  the  value  of  that  product,  but  what  is  actu-1 
ally  and  consciously  given  in  exchange  for  the  service, 
per  se.  Robinson  Crusoe  might  reap  the  full  reward 
or  product  of  his  labor,  but  he  could  not  have  wages. 
For  the  same  reason  that  there  can  be  no  value  with- 
out exchange,  there  can  be  no  wages — in  the  sense  the 
term  is  here  used — unless  labor ^  as  such,  is  bought  and 
sold. 

Popular  phrase,  which  is  always  the  most  direct 
avenue  to  the  mind  of  the  masses,  has  for  once  as- 
cribed the  correct  meaning  to  an  important  economic 
term,  enabling  us  to  use  the  word  wages  in  the  same 
sense  that  it  is  used  in  common  language.  This  is  al- 
ways important,  but  it  is  especially  so  in  relation  to 
the  subject  under  consideration,  that,  more  than  all 
others,  is  the  one  in  which  "  unlettered  laborers  "  are 
most  deeply  interested  ;  hence  they  should  be  enabled 


*  The  discussion  of  the  whole  question  of  value  and  price,  both  of 
which  relate  to  the  ratio  of  exchange,  will  be  found  in  the  next  volume. 
5 


74  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

to  clearly  understand  it.  We  shall,  therefore,  through- 
out this  work  always  use  the  term  wages  in  the  popu- 
lar sense — i.e.y  as  expressing  the  price  of  labor,  leav- 
ing it  to  those  who  desire  to  give  the  word  a  different 
signification  to  show  that  something  will  be  gained  in 
clearness  by  so  doing. 

It  will  be  observed  that  this  definition  of  wages  in- 
cludes the  incomes,  not  only  of  the  laborers  who  work 
by  the  day,  by  the  week,  or  by  the  month,  but  those 
of  all,  without  regard  to  sex  or  social  status,  who  sell 
their  services  as  such.  That  is  to  say,  wages  cover  all 
stipulated,  as  distinguished  from  contingent,  incomes 
which  are  received  in  exchange  for  personal  services. 


Section  II. — Real  and  Nominal  Wages, 

Before  passing  to  the  consideration  of  the  economic 
law  by  which  wages  are  governed,  it  is  important 
to  distinguish  clearly  between  real  wages  and  nominal 
wages.  The  failure  to  recognize  clearly  the  distinc- 
tion between  these  two  kinds  of  wages  is  the  cause  of 
not  a  little  of  the  chaos  and  confusion  in  which  the 
question  of  wages  has  hitherto  been  all  but  intermi- 
nably involved. 

By  ''Real  Wages'*  is  meant  the  actual  amount  of 
wealth  (social  well-being)  obtainable  for  a  day's  labor. 
By  **  Nominal  Wages'*  is  meant  the  amount  of  money 
obtainable  for  a  day's  labor.  The  social  well-being  of 
the  wage-receiving  portion  of  the  community — which 
is  increasing  as  the  complexity  of  society  advances — is 
always  infallibly  indicated  by  the  general  rate  of  real 
wages.  But  this  is  not  necessarily  the  case  with  nom- 
inal wages.     Whether   or  not  a  rise  in    the   rate   of 


REAL   AND  NOMINAL    WAGES.  ^5 

nominal  wages  indicate  an  improvement  in  the  social 
condition  of  the  wage-receivers  depends  entirely  upon 
whether  or  not  it  is  accompanied  by  an  equal  rise  of 
rm/ wages.  This  may  or  may  not  be  the  case.  If, 
e.g.y  nominal  wages  should  rise  from  one  dollar  to  one 
dollar  and  a  half  per  day,  and  the  price  level  of  com- 
modities upon  which  those  wages  were  expended  rose 
in  the  same  proportion,  there  would  be  no  increase  in 
real  wages,  because  the  one  dollar  and  a  half  would 
exchange  for  no  more  of  the  various  commodities 
than  the  one  dollar  previously  did.  Consequently,  no 
more  wealth  could  be  obtained  for  a  day's  labor  than 
before,  and  hence  no  improvement  in  the  social  well- 
being  of  the  wage-receiver  would  ensue.  And  if,  as 
is  frequently  the  case,  the  rise  in  the  price  level  should 
be  relatively  greater  than  that  in  the  nominal  wages, 
the  amount  of  wealth  procurable  for  a  day's  labor 
would  be  even  less  than  before.  Thus  real  wages 
would  actually  have  fallen,  while  nominal  wages  rose 
fifty  per  cent.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  a  fall  of  ten 
per  cent  in  the  price  level  would,  other  things  being 
the  same,  constitute  a  rise  of  ten  per  cent  in  real  wages 
without  any  change  in  nominal  wages. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  nominal  and  real  wages -are 
not  only  not  identical,  but  that  they  may  either  of 
them  rise  or  fall  without  a  similar  movement  in  the 
other,  and  that  it  is  only  by  the  change  of  the  latter 
that  the  economic  and  social  condition  of  the  masses 
is  really  affected.  Therefore,  the  relation  of  real  and 
nominal  wages  to  each  other  and  to  the  social  condi- 
tion of  the  masses  may  be  briefly  stated  as  follows  : 

(i)  That  the  economic  and  social  well-being  of  the 
masses  is  always  indicated  by  the  general  rate  of  real 
wages,  but  not  necessarily  by  that  of  nominal  wages. 


76  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

(2)  That  the  movement  of  nominal  wages  may  or 
may  not  be  identical  with  that  of  real  wages  ;  and  that 
it  indicates  a  change  in  the  social  condition  of  the 
masses,  only  to  the  extent  that  it  reflects  the  movement 
of  real  wages  ;  and 

(3)  That,  therefore,  nothing  can  improve  the  social 
condition  of  the  masses,  whether  it  raises  nominal 
wages  or  not,  which  does  not  increase  the  general  rate 
of  real  wages,  the  degree  of  which  may  be  universally 
taken  as  the  accurate  measure  of  social  progress.  It  is 
therefore  with  the  economic  law  governing  real  wages 
that  the  economist,  the  statesman,  the  social  reformer, 
and,  above  all,  the  laboring  classes  are  most  deeply 
concerned. 

With  this  understanding  of  what  constitutes  wages, 
per  sey  and  the  distinction  between  nominal  and  real 
wages,  we  pass  to  the  consideration  of  that  still  more 
important,  nay,  most  important,  question  connected 
with  social  economics,  viz.,  the  law  of  wages. 


Section  III. — The  Economic  Laiv  of  Wages. 

In  order  to  observe  distinctly  the  movement  of  wages, 
and  understand  the  law  by  which  it  is  governed,  we 
must  examine  it  in  its  earliest  and  simplest  stages — be- 
fore it  has  become  involved  in  the  subtleties  of  com- 
plex social  phenomena.  Social  industry  in  its  progress 
to  its  present  state  has  assumed  three  distinctive 
forms,  which  may  be  designated  as  savagery,  slavery, 
and  wages.  Each  of  these  industrial  systems,  so- 
called,  had  economic  characteristics  peculiar  to  it- 
self, one  of  which  was  the  relation  the  laborer  sus- 
tained  to   the   product  of  his  labor,  and  the   condi- 


THE   SLAVERY  AND   WAGES  SYSTEMS.  77 

tions  which  determined  the  portion  of  it  he  should 
receive. 

Social  progress  being  a  growth  or  an  evolution,  its 
movement  is  necessarily  gradual,  and  hitherto  has 
been  very  slow.  Accordingly,  industrial  systems  come 
and  go  by  insensible  gradations  ;  and,  while  essentially 
different  in  their  main  characteristics,  some  of  the 
features  of  each  are  naturally  found  to  be  common  to 
all.  Consequently,  we  find  much  in  slavery  that  is 
common  to  savagery,  of  which  it  was  the  natural  out- 
come. This  is  equally  true  of  the  wages  system.  Be- 
ing the  outgrowth  of  the  slavery  system,  it  naturally 
possesses  many  of  the  same  characteristics. 

Under  both  systems  labor  is  an  indispensable  factor 
in  the  production  of  wealth.  Under  both  systems  the 
products  belong  to  the  master  or  employer,  and  not  to 
the  laborer.  Under  both  systems  labor  is  bought  and 
sold,  and  as  the  service  of  labor  is  inseparable  from  the 
laborer,  under  both  the  presence  of  the  laborer  is  es- 
sential to  the  delivery  of  the  labor  ;  and  as  under 
slavery  the  master  could  not  obtain  the  service  of  the 
slave  without  furnishing  him  with  sufficient  means  to 
keep  him  in  working  condition,  so  under  the  wages 
system  it  is  impossible  for  the  employer  to  obtain  the 
service  of  the  laborer  for  less  than  will  afford  him  a  liv- 
ing.* Thus  far  the  two  systems  are  essentially  the 
same ;  but  at  this  point  a  change  takes  place.  New 
elements  enter  into  the  wages  system  which  were  un- 
known to  that  of  slavery.  While  under  both  systems 
the  employer,  in  order  to  obtain  the  service  of  the  la- 


*  This  much  is  conceded  by  all  leading  economists,  both  English 
and  Continental,  and  is  what  they  have  termed  **  natural  *'  or  "  neces- 
sary" wages. 


78  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS, 

borer,  is  compelled  to  give  him  as  much  of  the  product 
as  will  afford  him  a  living,  under  slavery  what  should 
constitute  the  standard  of  that  living  could  be  deter- 
mined by  the  arbitrary  will  of  the  master.  Under 
the  wages  system  his  standard  of  living  is  determined 
by  the  extent  of  his  habitual  wants  and  desires  {i.e.y 
the  complexity  of  his  social  character),  which  may  be 
and  are  constantly  increased  according  to  the  extent 
and  complexity  of  his  social  environment. 

Although  under  both  systems  labor  is  bought  and 
sold,  under  slavery,  in  order  to  obtain  the  service,  or 
labor,  the  master  bought  the  laborer  as  a  commodity. 
Under  the  wages  system  he  buys  only  the  labor  as  ser- 
vice. The  result  of  this  new  feature  is  that  the  person 
of  the  laborer  not  only  ceases  to  be  the  object  of  the 
sale,  but,  instead  of  being  the  sold,  as  under  slavery, 
he  becomes  the  seller.  In  other  words,  the  employer, 
under  wages,  instead  of  buying  and  selling  laborers, 
as  under  slavery,  buys  service  and  sells  products,  and 
the  laborer  sells  service  and  buys  products.  Thus, 
seryice,  instead  of  persons,  began  to  be  exchanged,  and 
the  value  or  price  was  transferred  from  the  laborer  to 
his  labor, "^  Thenceforth  the  laborer  ceased  to  be  a 
commodity,  and  became  a  distinct  social  as  well  as  an 
economic  factor,  which  constitutes  the  essential  differ- 
ence, as  we  shall  hereafter  see,  between  the  two  in- 
dustrial systems. 

It  will  thus  be  observed  that  during  the  social  differ- 
entiation in  which  slavery  was  superseded  by  wages, 

*  It  will  be  observed  that  it  is  at  this  point  that  the  interest  of  the 
purchaser  of  labor,  as  such,  ceases  to  reside  in  the  personality  of  the 
laborer.  Whether  he  lives  or  dies  is  no  longer  a  matter  of  any  im- 
portance to  the  buyer  or  employer  of  labor,  because  he  now  only  pays 
for  the  service  the  laborer  actually  renders  or  delivers. 


THE  LAW  OF  ECONOMIC  PRICES.  79 

service,  as  such,  for  the  first  time  became  an  economic 
entity,  possessing  value,  and,  consequently,  subject  to 
the  social  laws  of  exchange.  We  have  seen*  that  under 
savagery  the  amount  of  wealth  the  laborer  obtained — 
which  was  the  smallest  he  ever  got — was  determined  by 
what  he  produced,  because  he  owned  both  the  labor 
and  the  product,  such  as  it  was  ;  that,  under  slavery, 
the  amount  was  determined  by  the  master,  for  the 
same  reason,  viz.,  that  he  owned  both  the  laborer  and 
the  product.  How  that  is  determined  under  the  pres- 
ent system,  where  the  ownership  of  labor  or  service 
and  that  of  the  product  are  separated,  the  laborer  hav- 
ing possession  of  the  former  and  the  employer  that  of 
the  latter,  and  each  being  able  to  obtain  what  he  gets 
from  the  other  only  by  means  of  exchange,  is  now  the 
question. 

Manifestly,  labor  being  now  subject  to  all  the  con- 
ditions of  exchange,  its  price  (wages)  must  necessarily 
be  determined  by  the  same  general  law  governing  that 
of  all  other  things  in  the  domain  of  exchange.  There- 
fore, in  seeking  the  economic  law  of  wages,  we  are 
really  seeking  the  law  of  prices. 

The  full  discussion  of  prices  (value),  exchange, 
etc.,  in  relation  to  commodities,  will  be  found  in  an- 
other part  of  this  work,  which,  for  reasons  already  ex- 
plained, will  be  published  separately,  f  For  our  pres- 
ent purpose,  therefore,  we  shall  only  briefly  state  the 
law  there  elaborately  established,  and  then  apply  it  to 
wages.     It  affirms  : 

(i)  That  value  in  economics  refers  exclusively  to 
the  domain  of  exchange  and  includes  both  com- 
modities and  services,  and  always  expresses  the  ratio 

•    *  Chapter  I.,  Part  I.  f  See  preface. 


So  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

in  which  quantities,  whether  of  commodities  or  ser- 
vices, or  both,  will  exchange  for  one  another. 

(2)  That  the  ratio  in  which  quantities  of  different 
\  commodities  will  exchange  for  one  another  is  not  deter- 
mined by  supply  and  demand,  as  popularly  taught,  but 
that  it  is  primarily  governed  by  the  cost  of  production. 

This  doctrine  does  not  mean  that  the  price  at  which 
each  article  is  actually  sold  is  determined  by  the  cost 
of  producing  that  particular  article.  In  that  case  there 
would  be  no  profits,  as  everything  would  be  sold  for 
exactly  what  it  cost  to  make  it  ;  or,  if  a  specific  rate 
of  profit  is  included  in  the  cost,  the  actual  price  of 
every  individual  article  would  vary  precisely  according 
to  the  difference  in  the  cost  of  making  it  ;  in  which  case 
everybody  would  obtain  exactly  the  same  rate  of 
profit.  Hence  there  would  be  no  losses,  and,  conse- 
quently, no  failures  or  bankruptcies  ;  but  we  know  that 
there  are  profits,  and  that  they  are  not  uniform  ; 
that  in  some  cases  they  are  very  large  and  in  others 
very  small,  and  that  there  are  many  losses,  failures,  and 
bankruptcies.*  What  we  mean  by  saying  that  prices 
are  determined  by  the  cost  of  production,  is  that  the 
general  price  of  any  given  class  of  articles  is  determined 
by  the  cost  of  producing  or  replacing  that  portion  of 
the  necessary  supply  of  that  commodity  which  is  pro- 
duced under  the  greatest  disadvantage.  In  other 
words,  the  normal  price  of  any  commodity  in  a  given 
market  is  determined  by  the  cost  of  producing  the 
most  expensive  portion  of  it.  Nor  is  the  reason  for 
this  difficult  to  understand.  No  one  can  continuously 
sell  an  article  for  less  than  it  costs  to  produce  it ;  con- 
sequently, that  portion  of  the  general  supply  o.f  a  com- 

*  It  is  estimated  that  over  ninety  per  cent  who  go  into  business  fail. 


THE  LAW  OF  PRICES  ILLUSTRATED.  8i 

modity  which  costs  the  most  to  produce  it  must  be 
sold  at  a  price  high  enough  to  at  least  cover  the  cost 
of  its  production.  The  price  at  which  the  most  ex- 
pensive portion  of  the  general  supply  must  be  sold  is, 
of  course,  that  at  which  the  balance  can  be  sold. 
And,  as  no  one  will  voluntarily  sell  for  less  than  the 
highest  price  he  can  with  certainty  obtain,  it  follows 
that  the  balance  will  be  sold  at  that  price.  Conse- 
quently, that  portion  of  the  necessary  supply  of  a  com- 
modity which,  from  closer  proximity  to  the  market, 
improved  machinery,  easier  access  to  the  raw  material, 
or  whatsoever,  is  produced  at  less  than  the  maximum 
cost,  yields  a  proportionately  larger  profit. 

Suppose,  for  example,  that  A,  B,  C,  and  D  supplied 
a  given  market  with  shoes  of  a  certain  quality  ;  and 
suppose,  also,  that  A,  with  the  capital,  tools,  etc.,  at 
his  command,  can  barely  make  these  shoes  and  get  his 
own  back  at  one  dollar  a  pair,  and  that  B,  C,  and  D, 
through  larger  capital,  superior  machinery,  favorable 
location,  or  any  other  cause,  can  furnish  the  same  grade 
of  shoes  at  ninety-five,  ninety,  and  eighty-five  cents  a 
pair  respectively.  Now,  it  is  very  clear  that  A  must 
sell  his  shoes  at  one  dollar  a  pair  or  leave  the  business, 
If  A  can  sell  his  shoes  at  one  dollar  a  pair,  there  is  no 
economic  force  to  prevent  B,  C,  and  D  from  selling 
theirs  at  the  same  price.  True,  they  could  afford  to 
sell  theirs  at  less  than  A,  but  as  they  have  nothing  to 
gain,  and  five,  ten,  and  fifteen  cents  a  pair  respectively 
to  lose  by  so  doing,  they  cannot  be  expected  to  do  so. 
In  fact,  they  will  not  do  so  as  long  as  they  can  sell 
their  whole  product  at  one  dollar  a  pair. 

Suppose,  however,  D,  seeing  that  by  increasing  his 
sales  one  fourth  he  could  enlarge  his  factory  or  put  in 
improved   machinery,    and   in   this   way   be    able   to 


82  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

produce  the  shoes  two  and  a  half  cents  a  pair  cheaper, 
actually  increase  his  aggregate  profits,  and  sell  the 
shoes  five  cents  a  pair  lower,  and,  in  order  to  under- 
sell his  competitors  and  accomplish  this-  object,  he 
should  reduce  the  price  of  his  shoes  to  ninety-five  cents 
a  pair  ?  Now,  other  things  being  equal,  people  will 
not  give  one  dollar  a  pair  for  shoes  when  they  can  get 
them  for  ninety-five  cents  ;  therefore,  in  order  to  sell 
their  shoes,  C,  B,  and  A  must  compete  with  D  and  re- 
duce the  price.  As  C  and  B  had  ten  and  five  cents  a 
pair  profit  respectively,  they  can  afford  to  do  so  by 
lowering  their  profits  ;  but  A,  who  was  getting  no 
profits — his  shoes  costing  him  one  dollar  a  pair  to  make 
them — could  make  no  reduction  in  the  price  ;  hence,  he 
is  undersold  and  driven  from  the  market.  Now  that 
A  is  gone,  B's  product  becomes  the  most  expensive 
portion  of  the  necessary  supply.  The  minimum  at 
which  B  can  make  shoes  being  ninety-five  cents  a  pair, 
so  long  as  his  shoes  are  needed  ninety-five  cents  a 
pair  must  be  paid  for  them  ;  and  for  the  same  reason 
that  B,  C,  and  D  could  sell  for  a  dollar  a  pair  so  long 
as  A's  product  constituted  a  part  of  the  necessary  sup- 
ply, C  and  D  can  sell  at  ninety-five  cents,  and  that  will 
therefore  be  the  normal  price  of  the  shoes  so  long  as 
B's  product,  which  is  now  the  most  expensive  portion 
of  the  supply,  continues  to  be  required.  This  is  what 
is  constantly  taking  place  in  every  open  market  in  the 
world. 

This  law,  which  is  fully  explained  elsewhere,*  affords 
an  adequate  explanation  of  the  constant  tendency  of 
prices  of  a  given  commodity  toward  a  common  level — • 
the  great  difference  in  profits  in  the  same  industry — • 

*  See  chapter  on  "  Price  and  Profits,"  Vol.  II. 


THE  LA  W  OF  PRICES  APPLIED    TO  LABOR.       83 

the  losses,  failures,  and  bankruptcies — the  constant 
tendency  toward  the  concentration  of  capital  into  large 
enterprises,  and  the  consequent  crowding  out  of  small 
ones,  with  other  familiar  phenomena  in  the  world  of 
prices  and  profits,  that  are  inexplicable  upon  any  other 
theory. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  normal  price  of  any 
commodity  is  determined  by  the  dbst  of  production, 
w^iich  includes  reproduction,  but  not  the  cost  of  mak- 
ing or  replacing  each  particular  article,  nor  the  average 
cost  of  making  that  kind  of  article,  but  by  the  cost  of 
making  or  replacing  that  portion  of  the  necessary  sup- 
ply which  is  produced  at  the  greatest  cost. 

Having  found  the  law  of  prices  (of  commodities), 
let  us  apply  that  law  to  labor,  and  see  if  it  will  afford 
an  adequate  explanation  of  the  multifarious  and  hith- 
erto inexplicable  phenomena  in  the  sphere  of  wages. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  in  economics,  when  using 
the  term  "  law"  we  do  not  use  it  as  applying  to  exact 
quantities,  but  only  to  general  tendencies.  Hence, 
when  speaking  of  the  "  law  of  prices"  or  the  "  law  of 
wages,"  we  only  mean  the  law  which  determines  the 
tendency  of  prices  or  wages  to  move  in  a  given  direc- 
tion. According  to  the  principle  we  have  been  con- 
sidering, the  law  of  prices  is,  "  that  under  normal  con- 
ditions" the  price  of  commodities  always  tends  toward 
the  cost  of  production.  Applied  to  labor,  then,  this 
law  is,  that  the  price  of  labor  (wages)  constantly 
tends  toward  the  cost  of  producing  /<^<5^r  or  service. 
By  the  cost  of  a  thing,  it  will  be  remembered,  is  al- 
ways meant  what  its  owner  gave  for  it,  or  would  have 
to  give  to  replace  it.  Now,  what  constitutes  the  cost 
of  labor  to  its  owner,  the  laborer  ?  Obviously  the  cost 
of  his  living.     Upon  the  same  principle  that  producers 


84  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

cannot  or  will  not  consent  to  continuously  sell  a  com- 
modity for  less  than  it  cost  to  produce  it,  or  than  it 
would  cost  to  replace  it,  the  laborer  cannot  or  will  not 
long  consent  to  sell  his  services  for  less  than  it  cost 
Ihim — i.e.y  for  less  than  will  afford  him  a  living.  The 
cost  of  labor  to  the  laborer,  therefore,  is  the  cost  of  his 
living  ;  and,  other  things  being  the  same,  the  cost  of 
his  living  will  be  determined  by  the  number  of  his 
habitual  wants. 

It  is  not  only  true  that  the  laborer  cannot  or  will 
not  continuously  sell  his  labor  for  less  than  it  costs  him, 
2>.,  for  less  than  will  supply  his  socially  established 
wants,  but  it  is  equally  true  that  he  cannot  for  any 
considerable  time  together  sell  it  for  more  than  that 
amount. 

All  economic  movement  maybe  expressed,  as  Bastiat 
truly  observes,  in  **  Wants,  Efforts,  and  Satisfactions." 
This  statement  not  only  composes  the  course  of  eco- 
nomic movement,  but  it  also  expresses  the  order  in 
which  it  takes  place,  (i)  Wants,  (2)  Efforts,  (3)  Sat- 
isfactions. Want  supplies  the  motive,  effort  the  action, 
and  satisfaction  is  the  result.  Thus,  the  only  end  and 
aim  of  effort  is  satisfaction  of  some  want  or  desire  ;  no 
effort  is  ever  put  forth  for  any  other  purpose. 

Want  is  thus  not  only  the  sole  motive,  but  it  is  also 
the  only  measure  of  effort.  For  the  same  reason  that 
no  effort  will  be  put  forth  except  to  satisfy  some  want, 
no  more  effort  will  be  put  forth  than  is  necessary  to  sat- 
isfy that  want.  It  is  in  obedience  to  this  principle  that 
we  refuse  to  give  something  for  nothing,  or  object  to 
pay  for  that  which  we  can  have  free.  It  is  through 
the  operation  of  the  same  principle  that  man  every- 
where endeavors  to  obtain  the  maximum  result  for  the 
minimum  effort,  as  is  exemplified  in  every  division 


ARBITRARY  RISE    OF  WAGES  IMPOSSIBLE,         85 

of  labor  and  improvement  in  the  methods  of  produc- 
tion. Wants  being  thus  the  motive  and  measure  of 
effort,  and  wages  the  price  given  for  the  effort,  mani- 
festly the  laborer's  wages  can  never  be  permanently 
much  above  his  wants,  as  expressed  in  the  standard 
of  his  living.  Not  only  is  there  no  motive  for  him  to 
push  the  price  of  his  service  above  the  level  of  what 
would  satisfy  his  wants,*  but  if  it  was  arbitrarily  raised 
above  that  point  without  his  aid  it  could  not  long  re- 
main so.  If,  for  instance,  the  general  rate  of  wages  in 
any  community  should  be  arbitrarily  increased  by  law 
or  other  means  twenty-five  per  cent  above  the  habitual 
wants — the  established  standard  of  living — in  the  very 
nature  of  things  it  could  only  be  of  temporary  dura- 
tion. It  could  never  become  permanent,  because  the 
very  rise  itself  would  set  forces  in  operation  that 
would  neutralize  it. 

Assuming  the  standard  of  living  to  remain  the  same, 
wages  would  ultimately  be  adjusted  to  the  wants  in 
one  of  two  ways  :  either  the  rate  of  wages  per  day  or 
week  would  fall  or  the  laborer  would  work  fewer  days 
in  the  week  or  fewer  weeks  in  the  year.  Never  hav- 
ing an  incentive  to  work  except  to  satisfy  his  wants, 
he  will  refuse  to  work  more  days  than  under  ex- 
isting conditions  is  necessary  to  enable  him  to  obtain 
the  wherewithal  to  satisfy  those  wants,  for  the  same 
reason  that  he  will  not  give  two  dollars  for  what  he 
can  get  for  one. 

Consequently,  if  the  rate  of  wages  per  day  was  not 
reduced  by  the  employer,  the  same  result  would  be 
reached  by  the  number  of  days'  work  being  reduced  by 
the  laborer. 

*  For  a  definition  of  economic  wants  see  Chapter  IX.,  Sec.  I.,  Part  II. 


S6  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

An  arbitrary  increase  of  wages,  such  as  is  here  sup- 
posed, would  never  become  general  in  any  community, 
for  two  reasons  :  (i)  Because  there  is  never,  under  nor- 
mal economic  conditions,  sufficient  disposable  wealth  in 
the  hands  of  the  employer  to  enable  him  to  make  any 
very  considerable  rise  in  the  general  rate  of  wages  with- 
out an  increase  in  production.  (2)  Because  if  such 
disposable  wealth  were  at  hand,  there  is  no  conceivable 
motive  to  induce  him  to  give  it  to  the  laborer  unless 
he  (the  laborer)  desires,  nay,  demands  it,  which  noth- 
ing but  an  increase  in  his  wants  (his  cost  of  living)  can 
induce  him  to  do. 

But,  while  neither  the  means  nor  motives  ever  exist 
for  making  such  a  thing  general,  they  may  and  have 
existed  for  making  it  occur  locally  ;  and  wherever  it 
has  been  tried  the  results  have  been  as  we  have  indi- 
cated. 

Thus,  the  experience  of  Mr.  Brassey  with  the  coolies 
in  India,  as  related  by  his  son.  Sir  Thomas,*  was  that 
"  On  the  railways  of  India  it  has  been  found  that  the 
great  increase  of  pay  which  has  taken  place  has  neither 
augmented  the  rapidity  of  execution  nor  added  to  the 
comfort  of  the  laborer.  The  Hindoo  workman  knows 
no  other  want  than  his  daily  portion  of  rice,  and  the 
torrid  climate  renders  water-tight  habitations  and  ample 
clothing  alike  unnecessary.  The  laborer,  therefore, 
desists  from  work  as  soon  as  he  has  provided  for  the 
necessities  of  the  day.  Higher  pay  adds  nothing  to 
his  comforts  ;  it  serves  but  to  diminish  his  ordinary 
industry." 


*  "  Work  and  Wages,"  pp.  88,  89.  See  also  Smith's  "  Wealth  of 
Nations,"  p.  55  ;  Hearn's  "  Theory  of  Efiforts  to  Satisfy  Human 
Wants,"  pp.  19,  20. 


AN  ERRONEOUS  VIEW  OF  HIGH  WAGES.         87 

In  fact,  it  is  because  it  has  been  observed  that  a 
sudden  rise  of  wages,  which  is  always  arbitrary,  is 
generally  followed  by  idleness,  dissipation,  etc.,  among 
the  laborers,  it  has  been  commonly  held  that  "  high 
wages  leads  to  drunkenness  and  vice."  This  view  is 
not  only  held  by  employers,  who  eagerly  embrace  it 
as  a  defence  for  their  refusal  to  increase  or  their  efforts 
to  reduce  wages,  but  it  is  quite  commonly  held  by 
philanthropists,  morahsts,  editors,  and  even  some 
economists.  This  error  arises  from  the  failure  to  dis- 
tinguish between  arbitrary  and  economic  wages.  In  a 
word,  when  the  dollar  comes  before  the  want  it  is  very 
liable  to  be  wasted  ;  when  it  comes  as  the  result  of  the 
want  it  is  sure  to  be  utilized. 

Thus,  from  whatever  point  of  view  we  consider  the 
question,  there  is  no  escaping  the  result  that  real 
wages  always  move  toward  the  level  of  the  wants  ;  or, 
in  other  words,  the  price  of  labor  is  finally  governed 
by  the  standard  of  living — the  cost  of  its  produc- 
tion. The  evidence  of  the  truth  of  this  is  so  universal 
that  no  modern  writer  of  note  has  failed  to  notice  it  in 
some  form  or  other,*  although  it  appears  to  have  been 
almost  wholly  ignored  in  the  generalizations  of  even 
the  most  careful  economists.  Why  so  important  a 
phenomenon,  that  is  observed  by  all,  should  fail  to  find 
a  place  in  the  theory  of  any  economist,  is,  indeed,  diffi- 
cult to  understand.    \^ 

*  "  From  whatever  point  of  the  political  compass  we  may  set  out 
at  first,  we  shall  find  that  the  cost  of  production  is  the  grand  principle 
to  which  we  must  always  come  at  last.  It  is  this  cost  that  determines 
the  natural  or  necessary  rate  of  wages,  just  as  it  determines  the  aver- 
age price  of  commodities." — McCulloch' s  ^'Principles  of  Political 
Economy,'^  p.  178.  See  also  Ricardo's  **  Principles  of  Polittcal  Econ- 
omy and  Taxation,"  pp.  52,  75,  93.  Also  "  Wealth  of  Nations," 
Book  v.,  ch.  2,  pp.  690-93. 


SB  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 


Section  IV. —  The  Standard  of  Living. 

Having  seen  that  the  price  of  service  (wages),  like 
that  of  everything  else  in  the  sphere  of  exchange,  is 
ultimately  determined  by  the  cost  of  production,  and 
that  the  cost  of  producing  labor  is  determined  by  the 
socially  accepted  standard  of  living,  it  may  be  well  to 
define  a  little  more  clearly  what  is  meant  by  the  **  so- 
cially accepted  standard  of  living, '  *  By  this  expression 
is  meant  that  state  of  material  comfort  and  social  re- 
finement which  is  customary,  and  therefore  demanded 
by  the  social  status  of  the  class  to  which  one  belongs, 
and  below  which  he  cannot  go  without  being  put  to 
social  disadvantage. 

Again,  the  standard  of  living  as  here  stated  must 
never  be  understood  to  mean  that  of  the  single  indi- 
vidual, but  always  that  of  the  family.  Nor  does  this 
mean  that  the  wages  of  the  worker  in  each  family  are 
determined  by  the  cost  of  living  in  that  particular  fam- 
ily. In  that  case  there  could  be  neither  bank  accounts 
nor  bad  debts  incurred  among  the  wage-receivers,  the 
income  of  each  family  being  always  exactly  the  same 
as  its  expenditures.  Nor  could  there  be  any  general 
rate  of  wages  in  any  industry,  class,  or  country,  if  this 
rule  obtained,  because  in  every  variety  of  expenditure 
in  the  individual  family,  whether  caused  by  a  higher 
or  a  lower  standard  of  living,  a  larger  or  a  smaller 
family,  extravagance  or  economy,  waste  or  penurious- 
ness,  would  then  cause  a  corresponding  variation  in 
the  income  of  each  family.  Thus  the  expenditure  in 
each  family  would  be  a  law  of  wages  unto  itself. 
Again,  other  things  being  the  same,  where  there  were 
two  workers  in  a  family  the  wages  of  each  would  only 


THE    TRUE    THEORY  OF  WAGES  STATED.         89 

be  half  what  they  would  be  were  there  only  one,  all  of 
which  we  know  is  contrary  to  experience. 

Then  in  what  sense  does  the  cost  of  living  determine 
wages  ?  In  exactly  the  same  sense  that  the  cost  of 
production  determines  the  prices  of  commodities, 
which,  it  will  be  remembered,  is  by  the  cost  of  produc- 
ing the  most  expensive  portion  of  the  necessary  sup- 
ply. Therefore,  we  say  the  chief  deterniming  influence 
in  the  general  rate  of  wages  in  any  country^  class ^  or  in- 
dustry^ is  the  standard  of  living  of  the  most  expensive 
families  furnishing  a  necessary  part  of  the  supply  of 
labor  in  that  country y  class^  or  industry. 

The  reason  for  this  is  very  clear.  The  laborer  can- 
not and  will  not  work  for  less  than  that  which  will 
furnish  him  a  living.  He  will,  as  experience  shows, 
often  work  for  less  than  what  will  supply  him  with  ex- 
ceptional comforts  and  luxuries,  but  he  will  not  con- 
tinuously work  for  less  than  will  furnish  him  with  that 
which,  by  constant  repetition  and  the  force  of  habit, 
have  become  necessities.  Before  he  will  forego  these 
he  will  refuse  to  work,  and  inaugurate  strikes,  riots, 
and  other  means  of  endangering  the  peace  and  pros- 
perity of  the  community. 

If  two  dollars  per  day  is  the  minimum  amount 
upon  which  a  certain  portion  of  a  given  class  of  la- 
borers can  or  will  consent  peacefully  to  live,  then 
that  amount  must  be  paid  them  in  order  to  obtain 
their  labor.  What  the  most  expensive  portion  of  a  given 
class  must  receive,  the  balance  may  and  therefore  will 
receive.  In  other  words,  the  minimum  amount  upon 
which  the  most  expensive  laborers  will  consent  to 
live  determines  the  general  rate  of  wages  in  that 
class  ;  and  what  they  will  consent  to  live  upon  is 
equally  determined  by  the  number  of   their  habitual 


90  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

wants,  or  the  complexity  of  their  social  life.  To  re- 
capitulate then  :  (i)  Wages  are  the  price  of  labor. 
(2)  The  price  of  labor  is  governed  by  (moves  tow-. 
ard)  the  cost  of  its  production — i.e.^  the  cost  of  pro- 
ducing the  most  expensive  portion  of  the  necessary 
supply.  (3)  The  cost  of  producing  labor  is  de- 
termined by  the  standard  of  living  of  the  family, 
(4)  The  standard  of  living  is  determined  by  the 
habitual  wants  and  customs  or  the  social  character  of 
the  people. 

Only  this  theory  will  explain  why  wages  are  higher 
in  one  country  than  in  another  ;  why  the  wages  of 
skilled  laborers  in  some  places  are  lower  than  those  of 
unskilled  in  others  ;  why  agricultural  wages,  the  world 
over,  are  lower  than  those  of  the  mechanics  and  arti- 
sans ;  why  some  laborers,  even  of  the  lowest  grade, 
can  save  money,  while  at  the  same  time  the  best  por- 
tion of  their  class  can  hardly  make  a  living  ;  why  the 
best  portion,  and  often  those  who  earn  the  most,  as 
a  general  thing,  are  the  most  discontented  and  fre- 
quently the  leaders  in  strikes  ;  all  of  which  has  hitherto 
been  an  economic  enigma. 

From  this  view  the  objectionable  features  to  what 
has  been  termed  the  "  iron  law  of  wages"  entirely 
disappear.  The  idea  that  under  this  iron  law  wages 
cannot  rise,  that  they  constantly  tend,  as  Henry 
George  and  Continental  Socialists  affirm,  "  to  a  mini- 
mum which  will  give  but  a  bare  living,"  i.e.y  barely 
sustain  physical  existence  and  reproduction,  will  be 
seen  to  be  wholly  erroneous.  In  truth,  there  is  noth- 
ing "  iroti'  about  it  ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  as  elastic 
as  human  wants  and  desires,  and  capable  of  as  much 
expansion  as  the  social  character  of  man.  There  is 
nothing  in  this  law  to  prevent  the  general  rate  of  wages 


THE   ''IRON  LAW  OF  WAGES''   FALLACY.  91 

from  rising  to  $5000  as  well  as  to  $500  a  year.  If  it 
were  true,  as  is  generally  assumed,  that  wages,  when 
tending  toward  the  cost  of  living,  tend  toward  the 
minimum  upon  which  that  portion  of  the  laborers  could 
live  who  live  the  cheapest,  then  all  the  horrors  de- 
picted by  Lassalle  might  be  realized.  In  that  case  it 
would  be  only  those  whose  social  habits  were  the  sim- 
plest, who  would  receive  sufficient  means  to  gratify 
their  wants.  All  those  whose  habitual  wants  are 
most  varied  and  expensive  would  be  unable  to  obtain 
sufficient  to  satisfy  their  normal  needs,  and  hence 
would  be  in  a  constant  state  of  want  and  misery  verg- 
ing on  desperation.  Were  this  "  iron  law  of  wages  " 
view  correct,  it  would  indeed  merit  all  the  damnation 
which  Lassalle,  Proudhon,  Bakunin,  Marx,  and  others 
have  heaped  upon  it.  To  abolish  an  industrial  system 
of  which  such  a  law  is  a  necessary  part,  would  justify 
revolution — even  to  overthrowing  all  existing  social 
and  political  institutions  ! 

Were  this  pessimistic  doctrine  correct  it  would,  of 
course,  also  obtain  in  the  sphere  of  commodities, 
and  consequently  prices  would  be  determined  by  the 
cost  of  producing  that  portion  of  the  supply  which 
cost  the  least.  In  this  case  those  who  produced  the 
cheapest  would  sell  at  cost,  and  all  others  who  could 
not  produce  as  cheaply  as  the  lowest  would  have  to  sell 
at  a  loss,  and  there  would  be  nowhere  any  profits.  In 
the  sphere  of  wages  this  law  would  fix  the  price  of  la- 
bor at  what  would  furnish  but  the  bare  necessities  of 
those  (in  that  class)  who  could  live  on  the  least  ;  and 
all  whose  cost  of  living  was  above  that  point  would  be 
in  debt,  want,  and  degradation.  It  is  hardly  neces- 
sary to  say  that  such  a  state  of  things  never  existed 
in  any  community.     It  is  an  inversion  arising  from  a 


92  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

misconception  of  one  half  of  the  relation  that  the  cost 
of  living  sustains  to  wages.* 

While  it  is  true  that  the  price  of  labor  (wages),  like 
that  of  everything  else,  tends  toward  the  minimum 
cost  of  production,  it  is  the  minimum  cost  not  of  the 
cheapest,  but  of  the  dearest,  portion  of  the  necessary 
supply.  This  makes  all  the  difference  between  what 
really  is,  and  what  would  be,  the  case  if  the  **  iron  law" 
view  were  correct.  In  this,  the  true  view  of  the  case, 
in  the  sphere  of  commodities,  the  normal  prices  being 
determined  by  the  cost  of  producing  the  most  ex- 
pensive portion  of  the  supply,  clearly  all  who  by  their 
superior  skill,  or  by  the  aid  of  machinery  and  tools, 
produce  commodities  at  less  cost  than  the  most  ex- 
pensive, can  have  the  difference  as  profit  ;  conse- 
quently, instead  of  all  producing  at  a  loss  except  those 
who  can  produce  the  cheapest,  and  nobody  having  any 
profits,  everybody  has  a  profit  except  those  who  pro- 
duce the  most  expensive  portion  of  the  necessary 
supply,  and  this  is  what  is  universally  taking  place. 

So  it  is  with  wages.  Instead  of  the  rate  of  wages 
in  any  class  being  determined  by  the  cost  of  living  of 
those  who  live  the  cheapest,  the  reverse  is  true  ;  it 
being  governed  by  that  of  those  whose  cost  of  living 
(for  the  family)  is  the  highest ;  they  constituting  the 
most  expensive  portion  of  the  supply.  Consequently, 
instead  of  all  laborers  in  a  given  class  whose  standard 
of  living  is  higher  than  the  lowest  in  that  class,  neces- 
sarily (when  in  steady  employment)  being  constantly 
in  want,  debt,  and  difficulty,  the  case  is  exactly  the 

*  It  is  especially  strange  that  F.  A.  Walker,  who  more  clearly  than 
any  economist  has  recognized  the  operation  of  this  law  in  the  sphere 
of  commodities,  should  have  failed  to  observe  its  equally  obvious  ap- 
plication in  the  domain  of  wages. 


WAGES  FIXED  BY  THE  DEAREST  LABORERS.       93 

reverse.  It  is  only  that  portion  of  the  class  whose 
cost  of  living  is  the  greatest  that  are  in  that  condition, 
and  all  whose  cost  of  living,  from  whatever  cause,  is 
lower  than  the  highest  can  indulge  in  extras  or  save 
money. 

And  the  reason  for  this  is  not  difficult  to  understand. 
We  know  that  the  general  rate  of  wages  in  the  same 
industry  and  locality  is  nearly  uniform.  We  know,  for 
instance,  that  weavers,  spinners,  shoemakers,  carpen- 
ters, bricklayers,  etc.,  working  in  the  same  shop  or 
factory,  or  on  the  same  job,  get  the  same  rate  of  pay 
for  work  at  their  respective  trades,  whether  they  are 
single  or  married,  have  large  or  small  families,  or  live 
more  or  less  expensively  than  their  fellow-laborers. 
We  also  know,  for  reasons  already  given,  that  the 
most  expensive  among  them  must  obtain  for  his  ser- 
vice that  which  will  supply  his  family  with  what  to 
them  (as  a  class)  are  the  necessities.  What  will  be 
sufficient  to  supply  the  urgent  necessities  of  the  most 
expensive  portion  of  any  class  of  laborers,  to  induce 
them  to  continue  to  work,  will  furnish  all  those  whose 
cost  of  living  is  less  with  a  margin  proportionate  to 
the  difference,  which  may  be  spent  in  what  to  them  are 
luxuries — dress,  amusements,  pictures,  etc. 

This  explains  why  we  always  find  those  whose  fami- 
lies are  largest,  or  those  who  have  more  cultivated 
tastes  and  wants,  and,  therefore,  their  cost  of  living  is 
higher  than  the  great  mass  of  their  class,  are  constantly 
chafing  under  the  pressure  of  their  unsatisfied  demands. 
This  pressure  increases  in  severity  in  proportion  as  the 
standard  of  living  rises  above  that  of  the  average. 
Consequently,  we  find  in  every  class  of  laborers  a  por- 
tion who  are  in  almost  perpetual  rebellion  against  the 
smallness  of  their  wages,  and  what  to  them  is  almost 


94  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

unendurable  poverty  ;  while  the  single  men,  and  those 
jiwhose  families  are  smaller,  or  who  maintain  a  lower 
j, standard  of  living,  while  receiving  the  same  wages,  can 
i  either  save  money  or  use  it  in  dissipation. 

This  is  the  reason  why  the  Asiatic  and  European 
laborer  can  come  here  and  accumulate  wealth  (or  dis- 
sipate *)  upon  wages  which  will  supply  the  American 
laborer's  family  with  only  the  bare  necessities  ;  as 
can  be  seen  in  the  fact  that  a  large  majority  of  the 
wage-receivers  who  own  their  homes  or  have  bank 
deposits  (so  commonly  regarded  as  evidence  of  thrift 
and  superior  character)  are  foreigners  and  the  children 
of  foreigners.  It  is  only  because  of  the  laborer's  habits 
of  life — his  standard  of  living  being  lower  than  those 
of  the  highest  of  his  class — that  he  is  able  to  save  at  all. 
Accordingly,  we  almost  always  find,  other  things  being 
the  same,  that  the  home  appointments,  sanitation, 
and  the  social  relations  of  the  wage-receivers  who 
own  their  homes — mere  shanties  most  of  them — are 
quite  inferior  to  those  of  their  class  who  hire  their 
homes  and  have  no  bank  deposits.  If  the  possession 
of  a  bank  account,  or  the  ownership  of  what  is  so  pat- 
ronizingly styled  "a  little  home,"  is  the  evidence  of 
superior  character  in  those  who  acquire  them,  why  did 
they  not  give  the  same  kind  of  evidence  in  their  own 
country  ?  It  may  be  replied  that  it  is  because  the  gen- 
eral rate  of  wages  there  was  so  low  that  it  left  no 
margin  above  what  would  give  them  a  bare  living. 
True,  but  why  is  there  no  margin  in  their  own  coun- 
try ?  Why  is  there  no  margin  for  the  best  class  of 
Chinamen  in  China,  of  Germans  in  Germany,  Enghsh- 


*  In   1880  thirteen  per  cent  of  our  population  were  foreigners,  and 
tiiey  furnished  thirty  per  cent  of  our  criminals. 


IVHV  FOREIGNERS  CAN  SA  VE  MONEY  HERE.      95 

men  in  England,  and  Americans  in  America,  while 
there  is  a  margin  in  almost  any  country  in  Continental 
Europe  for  the  Asiatic,  a  margin  in  England  for  both 
the  Asiatic  and  Continental  laborer,  and  a  margin  in 
the  United  States  for  the  laborers  of  every  other  coun- 
try, but  no  margin  for  the  American  laborer  in  any 
country  in  the  world  ?  The  answer  is  very  clear. 
There  is  no  margin  upon  which  the  best  class  of  labor- 
ers can  save  in  their  own  country  simply  because  there 
the  general  rate  of  wages  is  determined  by  their  own 
standard  of  living.  They  can  get  wages  which  will  leave 
them  a  margin  over  the  cost  of  living,  only  by  going 
where  the  price  of  labor  is  determined  by  a  social 
character  and  standard  of  living  higher  than  their  ozvn  ; 
or,  if  in  their  own  country,  by  adopting  a  standard 
of  living  lower  than  the  highest  of  the  class  to  which 
they  socially  belong.  Why  the  foreign  laborer,  who 
can  hardly  procure  a  living  at  home,  can  accumulate 
here,  while  the  American  laborer  can  only  obtain  suffi- 
cient to  satisfy  his  normal  social  needs,  is  for  the  first 
time  explained  by  the  operation  of  this  economic  law. 
And  should  the  standard  of  living  of  the  American 
laborer  ever  be  reduced  to  the  level  of  that  of  the 
European  or  Asiatic,  then  it  would  be  as  impossible 
for  the  foreign  .laborer  to  save  money  here  as  at  home, 
and  for  the  same  reason. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  rate  of  wages,  and,  con- 
sequently, the  social  prosperity  of  the  masses,  is  not 
kept  up  and  promoted  by  the  influence  of  those  whose 
standard  of  living  is  below  the  maximum  or  the  aver- 
age, but  by  the  constant  pressure  of  the  unsatisfied 
desires  of  those  whose  standard  of  living  is  the  highest 
in  their  class.  In  other  words,  social  progress  and  civ- 
ilization are  promoted,  not  so  much  by  saving  as  by 


96  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

consuming  wealth.  Those  who  save,  especially  among 
the  wage-receivers,  are  enabled  to  do  so,  other  things 
being  the  same,  solely  because  others  consume.  If 
everybody  saved,  who  would  consume  ?  and  if  nobody 
consumed,  who  could  save  ? 

Thus  it  is  that,  in  accordance  with  the  same  principle 
that  production  is  finally  determined  by  consumption, 
the  laborer's  income,  under  wage-conditions,  is  gov- 
erned by  his  expenditures.  In  other  words,  the  stand- 
ard of  living  is  the  economic  law  of  wages. 


Section  V. — The  Cost  of  Living. 

The  cost  of  living  is  a  resultant  of  two  factors  : 
(i)  The  price  of  the  commodities  the  laborer  consumes  ; 
(2)  The  quantity  of  commodities  which  enter  into  his 
habitual  daily  consumption.  The  former  affects  the 
money  cost  of  living,  and  the  latter  the  actual  stand- 
ard of  living. 

An  increase  in  prices  would  be  a  rise  in  the  cost 
of  living,  but  not  a  rise  in  the  standard  of  living.  It 
would  increase  the  wages  but  not  the  wealth  the 
laborer  receives  for  a  day's  services.  It  would  be  a 
rise  of  what  we  defined  as  "  nominal  wages,"  but  not 
a  rise  of  real  wages.  An  increase  in  the  habitual 
wants  involving  an  increase  in  the  number  of  commod- 
ities habitually  consumed  would  constitute  a  rise  in 
\}i\^  standard  of  living ;  it  would  increase  the  amount 
of  wealth  the  laborers  would  receive  for  a  day's  work, 
and  would  therefore  constitute  a  rise  of  what  we  de- 
fined as  real  wages.  It  will  be  seen  that  while  nominal 
wages  will  always  rise  with  a  rise  in  the  cost  of  living, 


PRICES  AFFECT  NOMINAL,  NOT  REAL  WAGES.     97 

it  will  only  represent  more  wealth  for  the  laborer  when 
it  is  accompanied  by  a  rise  in  the  standard  of  livingy 
which  is  real  wages.  It  may  therefore  be  laid  down 
that  the  general  rate  of  real  wages  always  tends  toward 
the  standard  of  livings  and  that  nominal  wages  al- 
ways tend  toward  the  cost  of  living. 

From  this  it  follows  that,  prices  being  the  same, 
wages  will  vary  according  to  the  standard  of  living — 
i.e.,  according  to  the  quantity  and  variety  of  com- 
modities which  enter  into  the  laborer's  normal  daily 
consumption  ;  and  the  standard  of  hving  being  the 
same,  wages  will  vary  according  to  the  price  of  com- 
modities. 

It  should  be  observed,  however,  in  this  connection, 
that  although  any  permanent  change  in  the  cost  of  liv- 
ing will  surely  be  followed  by  a  corresponding  change 
in  wages,  it  does  not  follow  that  if  the  cost  of  living 
should  change,  from  a  sudden  rise  or  fall  of  prices,  that 
the  change  in  nominal  wages  would  be  equally  sudden. 
If,  for  instance,  the  cost  of  living  should  be  increased 
by  a  sudden  rise  in  prices,  wages  would  not  immedi- 
ately rise  in  the  same  ratio,  but  they  would  be  sure  to 
begin  to  move  in  that  direction  ;  and  if  the  rise  in 
prices  became  permanent,  the  wages  would  finally  be 
adjusted  to  them.  In  the  same  way,  if  prices  should 
suddenly  fall,  wages  would  not  immediately  fall  in  the 
same  proportion,  but  they  would  soon  begin  to  gravi- 
tate in  that  direction  ;  and  if  the  low  prices  became 
permanent,  wages  would  ultimately  fall  to  the  same 
extent.  Consequently,  the  variation  between  wages 
and  the  cost  of  living  produced  by  such  causes  can 
never  become  permanent  ;  they  are  merely  accidental 
perturbations  which  can  only  exist  during  the  time 


98  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS, 

necessary  for  the  wages  to  become  adjusted  to  the  new 
prices.* 

Whether  the  laborer  will  lose  or  gain  by  such  a 
change  will  depend  upon  whether  prices  rise  or  fall. 
If  they  rise  he  is  the  loser  until  his  wages  have 
also  risen,  and  if  they  fall,  he  is  the  gainer  until  his 
wages  are  reduced  in  the  same  ratio.  This  is  an  im- 
portant distinction  which  should  never  be  lost  sight 
of,  and  to  which  we  shall  have  occasion  to  refer  more 
at  length  hereafter.  Therefore,  if  the  doctrine  we 
have  laid  down  is  sound,  and  our  generalizations  are 
correct,  the  proposition  that  wages  are  determined 
by  the  cost  of  living  will  be  in  full  accord  with  all  ex- 
perience under  wage-paying  conditions.  Wherever 
wages  constitute  the  sole  or  main  income  of  the  labor- 
er, the  general  rate  of  wages  will  always  be  found  to 
sustain  a  general  uniform  relation  to  the  cost  of  sup- 
plying the  laborer's  wants  according  to  the  socially  ac- 
cepted standard  of  living. 


*  This  is  the  case  when  any  sudden  change  in  prices  and  wages  oc- 
curs as  the  result  of  a  variation  in  the  value  of  money.  Witness  the 
inflation  period  in  this  country  during  our  Civil  War,  and  the  subse- 
quent contraction  of  the  currency. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE   SIMILARITY   OF  WAGES   IN  ASIA  AND  EUROPE   IN 
THE   THIRTEENTH   CENTURY. 

The  theory  of  wages  presented  in  the  previous  chap- 
ter, if  sound,  should  afford  an  adequate  explanation  of 
wage-phenomena  under  all  conditions.  According  to 
this  doctrine,  wherever  it  is  possible  to  trace  the  gen- 
eral rate  of  wages  and  the  cost  of  living  from  century 
to  century,  or  from  generation  to  generation,  we  ought 
to  find  that  they  sustain  a  general  uniform  relation 
to  each  other.  Do  the  facts  sustain  the  theory  ?  Let 
us  see. 

If  we  can  accept  the  universal  testimony  of  travel- 
lers and  historians,  the  cost  of  living  among  the  labor- 
ing classes  in  the  leading  countries  in  Asia,  Africa,  and 
South  America,  has  always  been  exceedingly  low,  and 
their  wages,  so  far  as  wages  have  been  paid  at  all, 
have  ever  been  correspondingly  small.  In  India  the 
working  class,  or  "  lower  ranks,"  called  the  **  sudras,^* 
which  compose  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  live 
mainly  upon  rice,  ragi  or  millet,  with  salt  and  occa- 
sionally a  little  oil  or  chili  for  seasoning. 

This  diet  can  be  supplied  for  about  three  or  four  cents 
a  day.  **  A  quantity  sufficient  for  two  meals,"  says 
Gibson,  **  can  be  purchased  for  a  half  penny"  (one 
cent)."^     Turner,  who  made  an  extensive  tour  through 

*  "Indian  Agriculture,"  in  Journal  of  Asiatic  Society,  Vol.  III., 
p.  loo. 


lOO  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

Bengal  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
speaking  of  the  cost  of  living  among  the  common  peo- 
ple, says  :  "  The  value  of  this  can  seldom  amount  to 
more  than  one  penny  a  day,  even  allowing  him  to 
make  his  meal  of  two  pounds  of  boiled  rice,  a  due 
proportion  of  salt,  oil,  vegetables,  fish  and  chili."* 
"  From  the  earliest  period  to  which  our  knowledge 
of  India  extends,"  says  Buckle, f  "  an  immense  ma- 
jority of  the  people,  pinched  by  the  most  galling  pov- 
erty, and  just  living  from  hand  to  mouth,  always  have 
remained  in  a  state  of  stupid  debasement." 

The  truth  of  this  is  also  shown  by  the  fact  that  in 
most  parts  of  India  it  is  established,  both  by  law  and 
custom,  that  if  a  laborer  is  unable  to  pay  his  debts, 
which  is  a  common  thing,  he  or  his  wife  and  children, 
if  he  has  any,  become  the  property  of  the  creditor, 
and  by  this  means,  in  many  places,  a  large  portion  of 
the  laborers  have  become  slaves.:]: 

Nor  is  this  exceptional.  Turner  declares§  that  *  *  the 
lower  ranks  without  scruple  dispose  of  their  children 
for  slaves  to  any  purchaser,  and  that,  too,  for  a  very 
trifling  consideration  ;  nor  yet,  though  in  a  traffic  so 
unnatural,  is  the  agency  of  a  third  person  ever  em- 
ployed. Nothing  is  more  common  than  to  see  a 
mother  dress  up  her  child  and  bring  it  to  the  market 
with  no  other  hope,  no  other  view,  than  to  enhance 
the  price  she  may  procure  for  it." 

If  we  had  no  other  evidence  of  the  simple  life,  low 
wages,  and  consequent  social  degradation  of  the  masses 

*  '*  Embassy  to  the  Court  of  Thibet,"  p.  ii. 
\  "  History  of  Civilization,"  pp.  52,  53. 

\  Buchanan's  "  Journey  Through  the  Countries  of  Mysore,  Canara 
and  Malabar,"  Vol.  II.,  pp.  320-562. 

§  "  Embassy  to  the  Court  of  Thibet,"  pp.  10,  11. 


WAGES  IN  INDIA.  10 1 

in  India,  it  is  fully  shown  in  their  civil  and  religious 
code,  the  "  Institute  of  Menu,"*  which,  we  are  told, 
"is  still  the  basis  of  Hindu  jurisprudence,  and  the 
principal  features  remain  to  the  present  day. "  f  Ac- 
cording to  this  remarkable  code  a  sudra  (laborer)  has 
no  rights  that  any  superior  is  bound  to  respect.  For 
the  slightest  offence  to  a  Brahmin  he  can  be  cruelly 
tortured  or  put  to  death.  For  him  to  read,  or  even 
listen  to  the  reading  of  the  sacred  books,  is  a  most 
heinous  crime,  visited  by  terrible  penalty,  and  he  is  ex- 
pressly forbidden  to  attempt  to  accumulate  wealth. if 

But  we  are  not  confined  to  these  general  statements 
for  evidence  that  wages  and  the  cost  of  living  in  India 
go  hand  in  hand.  Buchanan,  unlike  most  travellers 
in  that  country,  did  not  content  himself  with  a  mere 
general  survey  of  the  social  and  industrial  condition 
of  the  laboring  classes,  but  in  each  place  he  visited  he 
took  special  pains  to  ascertain  how  the  people  lived 
and  what  their  living  cost.  Also  how  much  they  were 
paid,  and  what  they  were  paid  in — whether  in  goods 
or  in  money  ;  also  the  kind  of  money,  and  its  value  in 
gold.§ 

*  The  "  Institute  of  Menu,"  Buckle  thinks,  was  drawn  up  about 
goo  B.C.,  but  some  writers  have  put  it  at  a  much  more  ancient  date. 
See  also  the  works  of  Sir  W.  Jones. 

f  Elphinstone's  "  History  of  India,"  p.  83. 

I  Buckle's  "  History  of  Civilization,"  Vol.  L,  pp.  56,  57. 

§  According  to  Buchanan,  wages  in  India  range  from  six  to  nine 
cents  a  day  in  gold  ;  fifty  to  fifty-five  cents  a  month  when  the  laborer 
gets  one  meal  a  day  from  the  master,  etc. 

For  an  extensive  statement  of  wages  and  the  cost  of  living  in  India, 
which  we  regret  we  cannot  spare  the  space  to  quote,  the  reader  is  re- 
ferred to  his  "  Journey  Through  the  Countries  of  Mysore,  Canara 
and  Malabar,"  Vol.  L,  pp.  124,  125,  133,  171,  216,  217,  298,  390,415  ; 
Vol.  II.,  pp.  12,  19,  22,  go,  108,  132,  217,  218,  481,  523,  525,  562  ; 
Vol.  III.,  181,  363,  364,  428,  etc. 


I02  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS, 

His  investigations  were  not  confined  to  a  single 
locality,  but  they  cover  the  greater  part  of  Southern 
India.  They  were  taken  from  places  so  distinct  that 
different  modes  of  payment  prevailed,  and  even  differ- 
ent kinds  of  money  were  used.  Notwithstanding  all 
this  social  isolation  and  industrial  difference,  real 
wages  are  everywhere  clearly  governed  by  the  same 
law  ;  for  whether  we  find  the  laborer  receiving  his 
wages  in  food,  cloth,  house  rent  and  money,  or  in 
grain,  without  house  rent,  cloth,  or  money,  or  all  in 
money,  makes  little  or  no  real  difference.  In  all  cases 
the  laborer's  income,  of  whatever  it  consists,  is,  gen- 
erally speaking,  in  close  conformity  to  the  cost  or 
standard  of  living,  and  that  is  the  only  thing  to  which 
wages  appear  to  sustain  any  uniform  consistency. 

What  Buchanan  found  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  the  elder  Mr.  Brassey  found  in  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth. 

Speaking  of  the  laborers  of  India  employed  by  his 
father  in  building  railroads  in  that  country.  Sir 
Thomas  Brassey  says  :  *  **  Their  food  consists  of  two 
pounds  of  rice  a  day,  mixed  with  a  little  curry,  and  the 
cost  of  living  on  this,  their  usual  diet,  is  only  a  shil- 
ling (twenty-four  cents)  a  week."  *'  In  India,  wages," 
says  the  same  writer,  "  ranged  from  fourpence  to 
fourpence-half-penny  (nine  to  ten  cents)  a  day,"  which 
are  substantially  the  same  as  those  given  by  Buchanan. 

If  we  turn  from  India  to  China  we  find  a  similar  state 
of  things.  While  it  is  difficult  to  get  reliable  data  as 
to  the  industrial  system  of  China,  the  httle  we  have 
confirms  the  view  we  have  taken.  The  testimony  of 
travellers,  inconsistent  in  many  other  respects,  all  goes 

*  "  Work  and  Wages,"  p.  88,  ninth  edition. 


MODE   OF  LIVING  IN  INDIA   AND   CHINA.       103 

to  show  that  the  wants  of  the  laboring  classes  in  China 
are  very  few — that  their  diet  consists  mainly  of  rice 
and  a  few  vegetables — that  their  costumes  are  of  the 
simplest  and  cheapest  kind.  They  huddle  together, 
large  numbers  crowding  into  small  apartments,*  almost 
without  furniture — if  tin  cans,  chop-sticks,  and  board 
bunks  and  benches  admit  of  such  a  designation — and, 
consequently,  the  cost  of  their  living  is  but  a  few 
cents  a  day.  All  this  is  fully  confirmed  by  what  we 
see  of  the  habits  and  modes  of  living  of  Chinese  labor- 
ers who  have  emigrated  to  other  countries,  especially 
to  Australia  and  this  country — notably  in  California — 
where  they  have  settled  in  sufificiently  large  numbers 
to  carry  with  them  their  national  habits. 

While  parents  do  not  sell  their  children  in  open 
market  for  slaves  in  China,  as  in  India,  they  frequently 
destroy  them  because  of  their  inability  to  give  them 
a  Hving.  "  Marriage  is  encouraged  in  China,"  says 
Adam  Smith,  **  not  by  the  profitableness  of  chil- 
dren, but  by  the  liberty  of  destroying  them.  In  all 
great  towns  several  (children)  are  every  night  exposed 
in  the  streets,  or  drowned  like  puppies  in  the  water. 
The  performance  of  this  horrid  ofifice  is  even  said  to 
be  the  avowed  business  by  which  some  people  earn 
their  subsistence."  f 

True,  the  political  and  social  institutions  of  China 
are  in  many  respects  essentially  different,  and,  perhaps, 

*  "  Their  wants  are  few  and  they  are  easily  satisfied.  The  poorer 
classes  live  almost  entirely  on  rice  and  vegetables,  to  which  they 
sometimes  add  small  pieces  of  fish  or  meat.  Their  clothes  are  of  the 
cheapest  kind,  and  they  are  so  accustomed  to  crowded  apartments  that 
house  rent  forms  an  insignificant  item  in  a  Chinaman's  expenditures.'* 
— "  Encyclopcedia  Britartnica,'*  Vol.  V.,  p.  671. 

f  "  Wealth  of  Nations,"  Book  I.,  ch.  8,  pp.  55,  56. 


104  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

superior,  to  those  of  India.  In  China  education  is 
general,  if  not  universal  ;  "  it  being  intended,"  says 
Draper,*  "  that  every  Chinese  shall  know  how  to  read 
and  write  ;"  and,  public  officers  being  selected  by  "com- 
petitive examination,  the  way  to  public  advancement 
is  (theoretically,  at  least)  open  to  all  ;"  while  in  India 
the  laborer  not  only  receives  little  or  no  education, 
but  is  forbidden  even  to  associate  with  those  who  do. 
He  is  also  excluded,  by  the  combined  force  of  caste, 
custom,  and  law,  from  the  possibility  of  social  distinc- 
tion or  political  power.f  But,  notwithstanding  the 
constitutional  difference  between  the  political  and 
social  institutions  of  the  two  countries,  there  is  one 
thing  in  which  the  sudra  of  India  and  the  laborer  in 
China  are  very  similar — that  is,  in  their  mode  and 
their  cost  of  living.  In  both  countries  the  main 
diet  of  the  laborers  is  rice,  or  some  other  equally 
cheap  vegetable,  with  a  little  seasoning ;  in  both 
countries  house  rent  is  a  mere  fractional  item,  and 
furniture  almost  out  of  the  question.  In  both  coun- 
tries clothing  is  of  the  simplest  and  cheapest  kind  ;  but 
in  China,  if  it  is  not  dearer,  a  rather  larger  quantity  is 
used. 

Thus,  with  the  exception  of  clothing,  the  cost  of 
living  in  the  two  countries  is  very  much  the  same. 
Therefore,  if  the  doctrine  that  the  cost  of  living  is  the 
law  of  wages  be  true,  for  the  same  reason  that  wages 
are  low  in  India  may  we  expect  to  find  them  nearly  as 
low  in  China,  and,  so  far  as  reliable  data  is  obtainable, 
this  is  precisely  what  we  do  find.  Accordingly,  while 
wages  vary  from  five  to  eight  cents  a  day  in  India, 
they  are  from  six  to  ten  cents  a  day  in  China. 

*  "  Intellectual  Development  of  Europe,"  p.  6i8. 
f  Buckle's  "  History  of  Civilization,"  pp.  56,  57. 


STYLE    OF  LIVING  IN  ASIA   AND  ENGLAND.      105 

If  we  leave  Asia  and  go  to  Europe — if  we  turn  our 
attention  from  the  industrial  systerns  of  India  and 
China  to  that  of  England* — though  the  seeming  is 
different,  the  fact  is  the  Same.  While  in  other  re- 
spects the  conditions  of  society  in  England  are  entirely 
different  from  those  of  India  and  China,  we  find  the 
same  principle  obtains  in  relation  to  wages.  Although 
at  the  time  the  laboring  classes  in  England  began  to 
emerge  from  the  system  of  slavery  (or  serfdom)  to  that 
of  wages,  the  political,  social,  and  religious  institutions 
under  which  they  lived  were  entirely  different  from 
those  existing  in  Asiatic  countries,  there  was  still  one 
feature  common  to  them  all,  viz.,  their  material  con- 
dition. 

In  England,  as  in  India  and  China,  the  laborer's 
mode  of  life  was  simple,  his  wants  were  few,  and  his 
living  was  cheap.  What  rice  was  to  the  Hindoo  and 
Chinese  laborers,  wheat  was  to  the  English. f  While 
in  the  former  countries  the  laborer's  diet  mainly  con- 
sisted of  rice  or  ragi,  with  a  little  fish  and  seasoning,; 
in  the  latter  it  consisted,  for  the  most  part,  of  bread,/ 
herring,    and   beer.:j:     Nor  can   the  habitation   of  the 

*  We  take  England  because  it  is  there  that  the  wages  system  has 
been  in  existence  the  longest  and  has  become  the  most  general,  and 
also  because  reliable  industrial  data  is  more  abundant  in  that  country 
than  in  any  other.  As  Rogers  observes,  **  the  archives  of  English  his- 
tory are  more  copious  and  more  continuous  than  those  of  any  other 
people.  .  .  .  The  information  from  which  the  economical  history  of 
England  and  the  facts  of  its  material  progress  can  be  derived,  become 
plentiful  and  remain  continuously  numerous  from  about  the  last  ten 
or  twelve  years  of  the  reign  of  Henry  III.,"  or  about  the  middle  of 
the  thirteenth  century. 

f  There  are,  however,  certain  other  facts,  which  prove  the  same 
position,  that  the  Englishman  of  the  Middle  Ages  subsisted  on  wheaten 
bread  and  barley  beer." — Rogers^ s  "  Work  and  Wages,'''  p.  60. 

t  **  At  this  period  (the  thirteenth  century)  the  food  of  laborers  con- 


io6  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

English  laborer  be  said  to  be  any  better  than  that  of 
his  Asiatic  brother.  We  find  him  in  the  thirteenth 
century  existing — for  living  it  can  hardly  be  called — in 
a  hut  that  would  barely  ke^p  out  the  snow  and  rain, 
which  had  neither  windows  nor  chimneys,  with  the 
bare  ground  for  the  floor,  rushes  for  a  bed,  and,  some 
writers  say,  **  a  block  of  wood  for  a  pillow.  "  *  And, 
with  the  exception  of  an  iron  pot  for  cooking,  and 
earthen  vessels,  their  furniture,  which  was  of  the 
roughest  kiijd,  was  home-made,  all  of  which,  accord- 
ing to  the  inventories  made  in  the  taxing  rolls  of  Ed- 
ward I.,  were  valued  at  a  few  shillings. f 

Consequently,  we  find  his  wages  correspondingly  low. 
According  to  some  writers,  wages  in  England,  in  the 
thirteenth  century,  were  only  "  a  penny  a  day  in  har- 

sisted  principally  of  fish,  chiefly  herrings,   and  a  small   quantity  of 

bread   and  beer." — Wade's    ''History  of  the  Middle  and    Working 

Classes,' '  p.  8. 
*  "  In  the  houses  of  these  villages  (in  the  thirteenth  century)  the 

floor  was  the  bare  earth.  .  .  .  The  wood  fire  was  on  a  hub  of  clay. 

Chimneys  were  unknown,   except  in  castles  and  manor  houses,  and 

the  smoke  escaped  through  the  door  or  whatever  aperture  it  could 

reach.     The  house  of  the  peasant  cottager  was  ruder  still." — Rogers's 

"  Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages,"  pp.  67,  68. 
Wade  describes  them  as  even  worse.     See  "  History  of  the  Middle 

and  Working  Classes,"  pp.  8,  9,  12. 

f  The  following  is  a  copy  of  an  inventory  of  household  furniture  of 

a  peasant  taken  in  1301,  six  years  before  the  death  of  Ed  war    I.  : 

A  maize  cup £0  os.  6d. 

Abed 01     6 

A  tripod 00     3 

A  brass  pot 01      o 

A      "     cup 00     6 

An  andiron 00     3I 

A  brass  dish 00     6 

A  gridiron 00     6 

A  rug  or  coverlet 00     8 

£0  ss.  8K 
—Eden's  "  State  of  the  Poor,'  Vol.  I.,  p.  22. 


WAGES  IN  ENGLAND  NINE   CENTS  A   DA  Y.       107 

vest  and  a  half-penny  at  other  seasons."  *  This  is  so 
very  small  that  one  is  tempted  to  regard  it  as  excep- 
tional, although  Hallam  f  finds  **  a  bailiff's  account  of 
expenses"  more  than  a  century  later,  in  1387,  "  where 
it  appears  that  a  ploughman  had  sixpence  (twelve  cents) 
a  week,  and  five  shillings  (one  dollar  and  twenty  cents) 
a  year,  with  an  allowance  of  diet,  which  seems  to  have 
been  only  pottage."  Thorold  Rogers  says::]:  **  His 
wants  were  few,  and  most  of  them  were  satisfied  on 
the  spot.  .  .  .  The  bailiff  hired  hands  by  the  year, 
but  these  were  constantly  paid  in  allowances  of  grain 
and  a  small  sum  of  money.  Where  one  does  fkid 
day  work  paid  for,  it  is  at  about  the  rate  of  twopence 
(four  cents)  a  day  for  men,  one  penny  (two  cents)  for 
women,  half-penny  (one  cent)  for  boys." 

But,  as  "  agricultural  laborers  were  rarely  paid  by 
the  day,"  this  price  was  only  paid  occasionally,  and 
was  evidently  exceptionally  high,  for,  when  speaking 
of  the  wages  of  those  who  had  constant  employment 
throughout  the  year,  he  says  :  "  When  the  hinds  were 
hired  by  the  year  they  received  a  quarter  of  corn  at,  say, 
four  shillings  every  eight  weeks,  and  six  shillings, 
money  wages,  i,e,y  about  the  value  of  thirty-two  shil- 
lings a  year.  They  were  always,  however,  boarded  in 
harvest  time  and  at  periods  of  exceptional  employ- 
ment. This  board,  as  I  find  from  other  sources,  was 
reputed  to  cost  from  one  and  a  quarter  to  one  and  a  half- 
pence (two  and  a  half  to  three  cents)  a  day,  and  if 
we  take  six  weeks  as  the  time  thus  employed,  the  real 
wages  which  they  received  would  be  in  the  aggregate 


*  Wade's  '*  History  of  the  Middle  and  Working  Classes,"  p.  8. 

f  "  History  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  Vol.  II.,  ch.  9  ;  Part  II.,  p.  310. 

X  "  Work  and  Wages,"  pp.  169,  170. 


io8  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

about  thirty-five  shillings  and  eightpence  a  year," 
equal  to  seventeen  cents  a  vi^eek,  or  about  three  cents 
a  day.  If  we  allow  for  the  difference  in  the  value  of 
money,  a  penny  then  representing  about  as  much  silver 
as  threepence  does  now,  wages  would  be  about  from 
six  to  nine  cents  a  day.  Thus  we  see  that  the  cost  of 
living  and  also  the  wages  of  the  English  laborer  in  the 
thirteenth  century  were  substantially  the  same  as 
those  of  the  laborer  in  India  and  China. 

Since  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  however, 
a  great  difference  has  arisen  between  the  material  as 
well  as  the  political  and  social  condition  of  the  work- 
ing classes  in  England  and  that  of  those  in  Asia.  In 
China,  and  for  the  most  part  in  India,  the  wants  (stand- 
ard of  living)  of  the  laboring  classes  are  practically 
unchanged,  while  in  England  they  have  undergone  a 
most  wonderful  development.  The  laborer  in  China 
and  the  sudra  of  India  still  live  mainly  upon  rice, 
while  the  diet  of  the  English  laborer  to-day  includes 
not  only  every  variety  of  home  production,  but  also 
many  of  the  delicate  luxuries  produced  in  almost  every 
country  on  the  earth.  While  the  Chinaman  still  hud- 
dles in  a  hole,*  eats  with  chop-sticks,  and  sleeps  on  a 
board,  and  the  sudra  inhabits  a  hut  without  furniture, 
the  English  laborer  lives  in  a  house  well  built  and  bet- 
ter furnished  than  were  those  of  the  nobility  in  the 
thirteenth  century. f 

Accordingly,  if  the  principle  we  have  laid  down  is 
correct,  this  radical  difference  in  the  wants  and,  conse- 
quently, in  the  cost  of  living,  between  the  English  and 
Asiatic  laborer  will  be  accompanied  by  a  proportion- 


*  An  apartment  six  feet  by  five  can  hardly  be  called  anything  else. 
f  Henry  II.  slept  on  a  bed  of  rushes. 


WAGES  IN-  ENGLAND  AND  ASIA    TO-DAY.        109 

ate  difference  in  their  wages.  And  so  it  is.  Indeed, 
this  is  the  only  circumstance  which  fully  explains  the 
reason  why  we  find  the  laborer  in  Asia  to-day  work- 
ing for  about  the  same  wages  he  received  six  centuries 
ago,  while  those  of  the  British  workman  have  risen 
over  a  thousand  per  cent.  And  if  we  trace  the  prog- 
ress of  the  English  laborer  from  the  thirteenth  century 
to  the  present  time  we  shall  find  that  every  movement 
in  his  wages  from  that  day  to  this  has  been  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  same  law. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  RISE  OF  REAL  WAGES  IN  ENGLAND  IN  THE 
FOURTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Section  1,—  W/ij/  Real  Wages  Rose  Afterthe  Famine 
in  1315-21. 

Because  prices  sometimes  rise  without  an  immedi- 
ate proportionate  rise  in  wages  taking  place,  Adam 
Smith,  and  most  of  the  able  economists  who  have 
followed  him — including  Thorold  Rogers — have  con- 
cluded that  wages  are  not  controlled  by  the  cost  of  liv- 
ing, but  by  supply  and  demand.  It  is  no  valid  objection 
to  our  theory  to  find  a  marked  difference  between 
wages  and  the  cost  of  living  at  any  given  time.  On 
the  contrary,  such  disparities  are,  for  reasons  already 
explained,*  in  perfect  harmony  with  this  theory,  and 
what  we  may  always  expect  to  find  wherever  prices  are 
subject  to  sudden  changes.  One  of  the  earliest  illus- 
trations of  the  operation  of  this  law  is  shown  in  the 
first  distinctive  rise  of  wages  that  took  place  in  Eng- 
land. It  was  at  the  time  of  the  great  famine  in  the 
first  quarter  of  the  fourteenth  century  (13 15-21). 
Through  the  failure  of  the  crops  the  cost  of  raising  a 
bushel  of  wheat  was  greatly  increased.  Now,  wages 
did  not  rise  simultaneously  with  the  rise  in  the  price 
of  provisions — they  never  do — but  they  immediately  be- 
gan to  move  in  that  direction.     Had  the  failure  of  the 

*  Chapter  II.,  Sec.  V.,  Part  II. 


INFERRING  FACTS  TO  SAVE  A   THEORY.         in 

crops  in  13 15  been  followed  by  a  good  harvest  in  13 16 
wages  might  have  risen  but  slightly,  as  in  that  case 
the  prices  would  have  returned  to  the  wages.  But  the 
scarcity  continued  more  or  less  severe  for  seven  years, 
during  which  time  wages  increased  thirty  per  cent.* 

Thorold  Rogers,  who  is  forced  to  recognize  the  fact 
that  a  great  rise  of  wages  did  follow  this  increase  in 
the  cost  of  living,  is  manifestly  either  very  loath  to  ad- 
mit, or  unable  to  see,  that  they  rose  on  that  account, 
and  he  makes  a  strenuous  endeavor  to  explain  it  on 
the  theory  of  supply  and  demand.  In  doing  this  he 
affords  a  striking  illustration  of  the  length  to  which 
great  men  may  sometimes  be  led  in  creating  facts  to 
sustain  a  theory,  instead  of  making  their  theory  wholly 
depend  upon  its  ability  to  explain  the  facts.  Upon 
the  hypothesis  that  wages  can  rise  only  when  laborers 
are  scarce,f  and  finding  that  wages  did  rise,  he  con- 
cludes that  there  must  have  been  a  falling  off  in  the 
supply  of  laborers  ;  hence,  in  order  to  explain  this  in- 
crease in  wages,  he  assumes  that  the  people  must  have 
died  from  famine,  and  says  '.%  "  That  the  famines  of  this 
unfortunate  period  led  to  a  considerable  loss  of  life  is 
proved  by  the  unquestionable  rise  in  the  rate  of  agri- 
cultural wages  after  their  occurrence."  This  conclu- 
sion is  philosophically  unsound,  and,  to  say  the  least, 

*  "  The  immediate  rise  in  the  wages  of  labor  after  the  famine  of 
Edward  11. 's  reign  is  as  much  as  from  twenty-three  to  thirty  per 
cent,  and  a  considerable  amount  of  this  becomes  a  permanent  charge 
on  the  costs  of  agriculture." — Rogers's  "  Work  and  Wages,''  p.  2i8. 

f  "  Now  it  is  generally  the  case  that,  unless  the  laborer  is  paid  at  a 
rate  which  leaves  him  no  margin  over  his  necessary  subsistence,  an  in- 
crease in  the  price  of  his  food  is  not  followed  by  an  increase  in  the 
rate  of  wages,  this  result  being  arrived  at  only  when  there  is  a  scar- 
city of  hands." — "  Work  and  Wages,"  p.  217. 

X  Ibid.,  p.  217. 


112  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

historically  doubtful.  If  it  were  true,  as  assumed  by 
Mr.  Rogers  and  others,  that  wages  never  rise  except 
when  the  demand  for  labor  is  in  excess  of  the  supply, 
there  could  have  been  no  increase  of  wages  in  England 
from  the  last  quarter  of  the  fourteenth  century  to  the 
present  time.  There  has  not  been  a  time  in  the  his- 
tory of  England,  from  the  Black  Death  to  this  hour, 
when  the  number  of  laborers  in  that  country  has  not 
been  in  excess  of  the  demand. 

Still,  wages  have  continued  to  rise,  and  are  to-day 
many  hundred  per  cent  higher  than  they  were  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  when  labor  was  the  scarcest  it  was 
ever  known  to  be.  Therefore,  the  fact  that  wages  rose 
does  not  of  itself  justify  the  assumption  that  the  popu- 
lation had  decreased  or  that  the  supply  of  laborers  was 
inadequate  to  the  demand.  Nor  is  it  at  all  clear  that 
any  such  increased  mortality  occurred  as  to  warrant 
such  a  conclusion.  There  can  be  little  doubt  but  that 
the  famine  inflicted  terrible  hardships  upon  the  poor, 
and  that  many  died  of  starvation,  but  the  evidence  ap- 
pears to  be  entirely  wanting  of  any  such  terrible  death- 
rate  as  would  cause  a  sufficiently  marked  scarcity  of 
labor  to  account  for  an  increase  of  thirty  per  cent  in 
wages.  Although  the  historical  data  of  that  period  is 
very  meagre,  a  circumstance  which  struck  down  the 
population  by  starvation  would  hardly  have  escaped 
the  notice  of  the  best  writers,  such  as  Hallam,  Eden, 
and  others,  and  especially  as  it  occurred  only  about 
thirty  years  before  the  Black  Death  Plague,  which 
struck  terror  into  all  Europe.  Indeed,  Mr.  Rogers 
obviously  draws  his  conclusions  as  to  the  increased 
death-rate  more  from  inference  than  from  fact,  and, 
instead  of  connecting  the  rise  of  wages  with  the  histor- 
ical fact  of  the  falling  off  of  the  population,  he  infers 


THOROLD  ROGERS'S  DILEMMA.  113 

the  increased  mortality  from  the  fact  that  wages  rose, 
and  says  :*  "  Considerable  loss  of  life  is  proved  by  the 
unquestionable  rise  in  the  rate  of  agricultural  wages." 
The  rise  of  wages  does  not  prove  any  such  thing. 
Again,  this  inference  is  greatly  weakened  by  another 
circumstance  which  he  relates  on  the  same  page.  **  It 
is  said  by  chroniclers, "  he  adds,  **  that  in  the  universal 
scarcity  numbers  of  servants  and  domestics  were  dis- 
charged ;  that,  made  desperate,  these  people  became 
banditti  ;  and  that  the  country  folk  were  constrained 
to  associate  themselves  in  arms  in  order  to  check 
the  depredations  of  those  starving  outlaws."  Now, 
if  this  be  true — and  there  can  be  little  doubt  about  it, 
both  because  of  the  frequency  with  which  it  is  referred 
to  by  other  writers,  and  that  it  is  just  what  would 
naturally  occur  under  such  circumstances — it  greatly 
impairs  the  value  of  the  conclusion  above,  that  the  rise 
of  wages  was  the  result  of  the  increased  mortality 
among  the  laboring  classes.  Indeed,  the  two  cir- 
cumstances are  incompatible  with  each  other.  If 
it  were  true  that,  through  the  increased  death-rate,  la- 
borers had  become  so  scarce  that  thirty  per  cent  higher 
wages  had  to  be  offered  in  order  to  obtain  them,  it  is 
impossible  that  discharged  laborers  should  have  be- 
come "starving  outlaws,"  and  desperate,  roving 
"  banditti,"  for  want  of  employment. 

But,  when  we  view  the  rise  of  wages  as  resulting' 
from  the  increased  cost  of  living  instead  of  from  the 
scarcity  of  labor,  the  whole  phenomena  at  once  be- 
comes explainable  and  appears  perfectly  natural,  and 
the  increased  idleness  and  increased  wages  become 
quite  compatible  with    each  other.     The  rise  in  the 

*  "  Work  and  Wages,"  p.  217. 


114  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

price  of  provisions  that  would  naturally  accompany 
such  a  general  failure  of  crops  must  have  been  such  as 
to  make  an  increase  of  wages  for  those  who  work  in- 
evitable, although  the  unemployed  should  be  doubled 
or  trebled.  It  is  obvious  that,  however  many  laborers 
were  out  of  work,  it  was  impossible  for  those  who  did 
work  to  do  so  for  less  than  would  give  them  a  living  ; 
and  we  may  be  quite  sure  that,  under  such  circum- 
stances, even  the  increased  rate  of  wages  would  not 
more  than  barely  do  that.  Nor  is  it  less  certain  that 
the  numbers  of  the  unemployed  would  be  increased. 
With  both  provisions  and  wages  at  famine  prices  it  is 
very  natural  that  the  number  of  laborers  and  domestics 
would  be  reduced  to  the  minimum,  and,  in  many  in- 
stances, would  be  dispensed  with  altogether.  Thus, 
it  is  not  only  possible,  but  it  is  perfectly  natural  that, 
in  a  state  of  protracted  scarcity,  money  wages  should 
rise  and  the  number  of  tramps  increase  at  the  same 
time,  which  was  the  case  in  the  reign  of  Edward  11. , 
and  has  been  many  times  the  case  since,  a  set  of  circum- 
stances entirely  unexplainable  upon  any  other  theory 
of  wages. 

This  seven  years  of  scarcity,  however,  was  followed 
by  a  quarter  of  a  centur>^  of  uninterrupted  plenty. 
We  are  told — and  on  this  point  authorities  generally 
agree — that  during  the  last  five  years  of  the  reign  of 
Edward  II.,  and  the  first  twenty  of  that  of  Edward 
III.,  the  harvests  were  very  good,  crops  of  all  kinds 
being  abundant.  This  is  manifest  also  from  the  fact 
that  the  price  of  wheat,  the  average  of  which,  in  13 16, 
was  sixteen  shillings  a  quarter,  some  being  sold  as  high 
as  twenty-six  shillings  and  eightpence,*  fell  to  "  five 

*  Rogers's  *'  Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages,"  ch.  8,  p.  215. 


fV/fV  WAGES  DID  NOT  FALL   WITH  PRICES.     115 

shillings  and  fourpence,  the  average  of  the  first  twenty- 
five  years  of  the  reign  of  Edward  III."  * 

The  most  remarkable  feature  of  this  extraordinary 
period,  however,  is  the  fact  that,  although  wages  rose 
with  the  rise  in  the  price  of  provisions  during  the  fam- 
ine, they  did  not  fall  with  the  fall  in  prices  after  the 
famine.  And,  it  may  be  added,  they  never  have 
fallen  to  the  same  point  since.  This,  at  first  sight, 
may  have  a  paradoxical  seeming,  and  suggest  the 
query  that,  if  the  cost  of  living  is  the  law  of  wages  and 
a  rise  of  prices  causes  a  rise  of  wages,  how  comes  it 
that  a  fall  in  prices  does  not  also  cause  a  fall  in  wages  ? 
On  a  moment's  reflection,  however,  the  reason  for  this 
becomes  apparent. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  there  are  nominal  wages 
and  real  wages.  The  former  are  governed  by  the  cost 
of  living  and  move  in  the  direction  of  the  price  of 
commodities.  The  latter  are  governed  by  the  standard 
of  living  and  move  in  the  direction  of  the  wants,  or 
quantity  of  wealth  consumed.  Hence,  whether  or  not 
nominal  or  money  wages  will  fall  as  well  as  rise  with 
the  rise  of  prices,  will  depend  entirely  upon  whether  the 
causes  that  affect  both  nominal  and  real  wages,  or 
only  those  that  affect  nominal  wages,  have  been  oper- 
ating.    If,  for  instance,   the  standard  of  living  is  un- 

*  Tooke's  "  History  of  Prices,"  Vol.  I.,  ch.  3,  p.  21.  Speaking  of 
the  same  period,  Rogers  says  :  "  The  period  which  intervened  between 
the  last  of  three  bad  harvests  (1321)  and  the  great  event  to  which  I  shall 
next  advert  (the  Black  Death,  1349)  was  one  of  exceptional  prosperity. 
The  harvests  were  generally  abundant,  the  wages  of  labor  had  been 
permanently  improved,  and  all  kinds  of  produce  were  cheap," — ^^Six 
Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages, ^'  p.  219. 

See  also  table  of  prices  in  "  Wealth  of  Nations,"  Book  I.,  ch.  11, 
and  Hallam's  "  History  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  Vol.  H.,  ch.  9,  Part  H., 
p.  268. 


ii6  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

chanj^ed,  then  for  the  same  reason  that  money  wages 
will  tend  to  rise  with  the  rise  of  prices,  will  they  tend 
to  fall  with  the  fall  of  prices  ;  but  if  the  causes 
which  affect  the  standard  of  living  have  also  operated, 
the  result  may  be  very  different.  If  the  prices  rise 
and  wants  increase  at  the  same  time,  although  money 
wages  will  rise  with  the  rise  in  prices,  they  will  not 
necessarily  fall  with  them.  For  in  that  case  when  the 
fall  in  prices  occurs,  instead  of  nominal  wages  falling 
in  the  same  ratio,  the  surplus  is  absorbed  in  supplying 
the  new  wants,  thereby  constituting  a  bond  fide  rise  of 
real  wages. 

Now,  this  is  just  what  took  place  at  the  period  of 
which  we  are  writing  and  explains  why  wages  did  not 
fall  with  the  fall  of  prices  after  the  famine  of  13 15-21. 
The  rise  of  money  wages  at  that  time  was  unques- 
tionably due  to  the  exceedingly  high  prices,  but  the 
increase  in  real  wages  which  became  visible  when  the 
price  of  labor  failed  to  fall  with  the  price  of  provisions 
was  due  to  an  entirely  different  cause,  as  the  move- 
ment of  real  wages  always  is.  This  was  not  the  result 
of  any  circumstance  immediately  connected  with  the 
famine,  the  effects  of  which  upon  wages  disappeared 
with  the  return  of  plenty. 

The  rise  of  real  wages  was  the  result  of  social  causes 
which  had  been  in  operation  for  fully  a  century  before 
that  time.  During  the  last  quarter  of  the  twelfth  and 
the  whole  of  the  thirteenth  centuries,  through  causes 
which  I  cannot  now  stop  to  describe,  the  free  towns 
and  cities  made  great  progress.*      These  free  cities, 

*  The  rise  and  development  of  the  free  cities  and  towns,  and  their 
relation  to  the  progress  of  industrial  prosperity  and  the  growth  of 
social  and  political  freedom  among  the  masses,  will  be  found  in  the 
opening  chapters  of  the  next  volume  of  this   work,  where   it  will  be 


SOCIAL  POWER    OF    THE  FREE   CITIES.  117 

which  were  the  outcome  of  the  baronial  towns  of  the 
tenth  and  eleventh  centuries,  by  the  thirteenth  century- 
had  become  the  centres  of  trade  and  industry.*  In 
their  struggles  to  protect  themselves  against  the  plun- 
dering of  the  barons  on  the  one  hand  and  the  exactions 
of  the  king  on  the  other,  the  towns  were  compelled  to 
resort  to  all  the  means  of  strengthening  themselves 
within  their  reach.  Consequently,  in  the  struggle  be- 
tween the  feudal  lords  and  the  monarchy  for  supremacy, 
which  lasted  several  centuries,  the  towns  or  cities  would 
side  with  the  barons  and  help  them  to  resist  the  exac- 
tions of  the  king,  if  they  would  increase  their  town  priv- 
ileges. And,  on  the  other  hand,  they  would  fight  for 
the  king  if  he  would  grant  them  greater  charter  priv- 
ileges, exempting  them  from  the  authority  of  the 
barons,  whose  property  they  originally  were.  This  he 
was  naturally  willing  to  do,  because  by  that  means  he 
weakened  the  power  of  the  barons,  who  were  his  stand- 
ing enemies.  By  this  and  kindred  means  the  towns 
gradually  acquired  commercial  privileges,  and  finally 
the  right  of  self-government. f 

shown  that  the  free  cities  were  really  the  birthplace  and  nursery  of 
modern  civilization. 

*  "  From  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century  to  that  of  the  thirteenth, 
the  traders  of  England  became  more  and  more  prosperous.  The 
towns  on  the  southern  coast  exported  tin  and  other  metals  in  ex- 
change for  the  wines  of  France  ;  those  on  the  eastern  sent  corn  to  Nor- 
way ;  the  Cinque-ports  bartered  wool  against  the  stuffs  of  Flanders." 
— Hallam's  "  History  of  the  Middle  Ages^'  Vol.  II.,  p.  80. 

f  "  Under  such  a  system  of  arbitrary  taxation,  however,  it  was  evi- 
dent to  the  most  selfish  tyrant  that  the  wealth  of  his  burgesses  was  his 
wealth,  and  their  prosperity  his  interest  ;  much  more  were  liberal  and 
sagacious  monarchs,  like  Henry  II..  inclined  to  encourage  them  by 
privileges.  From  the  time  of  William  Rufus  (1087  to  iioo),  there  was 
no  reign  in  which  charters  were  not  granted  to  different  towns,  of  ex- 
emption from  tolls  on  rivers  and  at  markets — those  lighter  manacles  of 


Ii8  WEALTH  AND   PROGRESS. 

It  was  in  this  way  the  great  Magna  Chartay  which 
declared  all  existing  charters  of  the  towns,  and  especially 
that  of  the  city  of  London,  inviolable,  was  wrung  from 
the  treacherous  and  cowardly  King  John  on  that  mem- 
orable 15th  of  June,  1 2 14.  By  these  charters  the 
towns,  as  just  remarked,  finally  acquired  the  right  of 
self-government,  frequently  to  the  extent  of  electing 
their  own  magistrates,  levying  taxes,  supporting  their 
own  military,  etc.* 

In  order  to  increase  their  numbers,  wealth  and 
strength,  both  for  defensive  and  offensive  purposes, 
against  either  the  barons  or  the  king,  the  cities  offered 
an  asylum  to  all  who  should  escape  thither,  and,  after 
one  year's  residence  within  the  walls  of  the  city,  even 
serfs  were  declared  free,  and  were  granted  all  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  citizenship, f  which  was  not  only  to 
participate  in  defending,  but  also  in  governing,  the  city. 

The  necessary  result  of  this  was,  not  only  that  serfs 
began  to  flee  to  the  towns  and  cities  for  freedom, 
"  but,"  as  Guizot  says,:j:  **  frequently  men  of  consid- 
erable rank  and  wealth  .  .  .  upon  being  attacked  by 
more  powerful    neighbors    or    by  the  king   himself," 

feudal  tyranny  ;  or  of  commercial  franchises  ;  or  of  immunity  from  the 
ordinary  jurisdictions  ;  or,  lastly,  of  internal  self-regulation." — Hal- 
lam's  ''History  of  the  Middle  A^es,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  78. 

*  See  Guizot's  "  History  of  Civilization,"   p.    153. 

f  "  In  order  to  swell  their  numbers,"  says  Hallam,  "  it  became  the 
practice  to  admit  all  who  came  to  reside  within  their  walls  to  the 
rights  of  burghership,  even  though  they  were  villeins — appurtenants  to 
the  soil  of  a  master,  from  whom  they  had  escaped."  And  he  adds  in 
a  note  :  '*  One  of  the  most  remarkable  privileges  of  chartered  towns 
was  that  of  conferring  freedom  on  runaway  serfs." — "  History  of  the 
Middle  Ages;'  Vol.  I.,  p.  170. 

See  also  Guizot's  "  History  of  Civilization,"  pp.  153-157.  Wade's 
**  History  of  the  English  Working  Classes,"  p.  9. 

X  "  History  of  Civilization,"  p.  157, 


CHANGE  IJSr   THE  LABORER'S  CONDITION.       119 

would  "  carry  away  all  the  property  they  could  rake 
together  and  enter  the  city"  for  safety  and  protection. 
By  these  means  the  population,  wealth,  power,  and 
social  character  of  the  towns  rapidly  increased,  so  that 
early  in  the  third  quarter  of  the  thirteenth  century 
(1264)  they  began  to  be  represented  in  Parliament.* 

The  natural  result  of  these  changed  social  conditions 
was  that  the  power  of  the  feudal  lords  gave  way  to 
that  of  the  commoners,  the  serfs  and  villeins  became 
hired  laborers, f  and  by  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury feudalism  was  virtually  overthrown  and  the  period 
of  free  labor  was  inaugurated. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  during  the  hundred  years 
immediately  preceding  the  time  of  which  we  are  writ- 
ing— from  the  granting  of  the  Magna  Charta  in  12 14 
to  the  famine  in  13 15 — circumstances  occurred  that 
radically  changed  the  social  and  economic  condition  of 
the  laborers.  During  this  period  they  had  ceased  to 
be  mere  serfs  of  the  soil,  inseparable  from  the  lord's 
estate,  without  rights  except  by  his  decree.  They  had 
become  hired  laborers,  with  the  legal  right,  at  least, 
to  go  whithersoever  their  labor  was  in  demand,  or 
tenants  paying  rent  for  the  land  either  in  money  or  its 
equivalent  in  service.  All  this  change  in  the  industrial 
conditions,  the  greater  social  contact  consequent  upon 
the  increasing  variety  of  social  duties  and  industrial 
calling,  arising  from  the  growing  prosperity  and  social 
complexity  of  the  free  cities, if  in  the  government  of 

*  Hallam's  "  History  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  83.  See 
also  Guizot's  "  History  of  Civilization,"  p.  172. 

f  Hallam's  "  History  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  204. 

X  For  evidence  of  the  prosperity  of  the  free  towns  see  Rogers's  "  Six 
Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages,"  pp.  115-117  ;  Hallam's  '*  History  of 
the  Middle  Ages,"  Vol.   II.,   pp.   76-80,  266-268,  271,  272  ;  Wade's 


120  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

which  they  also  took  part,  naturally  produced  consid- 
erable change  in  the  social  needs,  desires,  and  aspira- 
tions— wants  and  character — of  the  people,  as  the 
history  of  that  period  abundantly  shows.  Indeed,  it 
was  impossible  that  this  should  be  otherwise.  Con- 
sequently, when  prices  fell  after  the  famine  (1321),  all 
the  conditions  were  ready  for  transforming  the  rise  of 
nominal  wages  which  had  occurred  during  the  famine 
into  a  permanent  rise  of  real  wages.  There  is  nothing 
surprising,  therefore,  in  the  fact  that  wages  did  not 
fall  again  with  the  fall  of  prices,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
that  the  greater  part  of  the  rise  in  nominal  wages  should 
be  converted  into  a  rise  of  real  wages  was  the  natural 
effect  of  the  changed  condition  of  the  masses,  arising 
from  the  general  economic  movement  of  the  period, 
and  would,  from  the  nature  of  things,  have  taken 
place  if  the  famine  had  never  occurred.  It  might,  and 
probably  would,  have  been  less  sudden  and  noticeable 
at  that  particular  time,  but  it  would  have  been  no  less 
sure.  If  we  trace  the  history  of  labor  from  that  time 
to  this  we  shall  find  that  wages  have  always  moved  in 
accordance  with  the  same  law,  and  real  wages  have 
everywhere  risen  or  remained  stationary  according  to 
the  advancing  or  stationary  condition  of  the  laborer's 
social  character  and  standard  of  living.  But  what  ap- 
pears to  me  the  most  remarkable  of  all  is  that  this  fact 
should  be  so  generally  observed  by  economists,*  and 


"  History  of   the   English   Working   Classes,"   pp.   9-11  ;    Guizot's 
"  History  of  Civilization,"  ch.  7. 

*  See  Smith's  **  Wealth  of  Nations,"  Book  V.,  ch.  2,  p.  691  ;  Tor- 
ren's  "  Essay  on  the  External  Corn  Trade,"  pp.  57,  58  ;  Ricardo*s 
"  Principles  of  Political  Economy  and  Taxation,"  pp.  50,  52,  75,  93  ; 
M.  Say's  "  Treatise  on  Political  Economy,"  pp.  336,  337  ;  McCuUoch's 
**  Principles  of   Political    Economy,"    Part   HI.,  sec.  7,  pp.  177,  178, 


THE  PLAGUE  AND   THE  RISE   OF    WAGES.         12 1 

yet  its  economic  relation  to  wages  be  almost  entirely 
overlooked. 


Section  II. — T/ie   Black   Death    not   the  Real  Cause 
of  the  Rise  of  Wages  in  1350-51. 

The  next  important  epoch  in  the  history  of  wages 
occurred  about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century. 
About  that  time  (1349)  a  fearful  pestilence,  known  as 
the  Black  Death,  which  is  said  to  have  arisen  in  China 
several  years  before,  after  working  havoc  in  most  of  the 
countries  of  Europe,  reached  England,*  when  about 
one  third  of  the  population  died  in  a  few  months.  In 
1350  there  was  a  marked  rise  in  the  rate  of  wages,  and 
the  rise  not  only  became  permanent,  but  it  continued 
its  upward  tendency  until  well  into  the  second  quar- 
ter of  the  next  century.  Here,  again,  our  economic 
historian,  Thorold  Rogers,  endeavors  to  put  the  stamp 
of  English  political  economy  upon  industrial  history. 
Upon  the  erroneous  theory  that  wages  only  rise  when 
labor  is  scarce,  for  the  same  reason  that  he  assumed 
exceptional  mortality  among  the  laborers  to  account 
for  the  rise  of  wages  in  1322,  he  attributes  the  rise  of 
wages  in  1350  and  135 1,  and  the  prosperous  condition 
of  the  masses  during  the  last  half  of  the  fourteenth 


181,    182,    184;  Brassey's   "Work  and   Wages,"  pp.  15,  16,  59-61, 
70,  88,  89,  93-96,  105,  108. 

*  "  The  disease  began  in  the  Levant  about  1346,  from  whence  Ital- 
ian travellers  brought  it  to  Sicily,  Pisa,  and  Genoa.  In  1348  it  passed 
the  Alps  and  spread  over  France  and  Spain  ;  in  the  next  year  it  reached 
Britain,  and  in  1350  laid  waste  Germany  and  other  northern  states, 
lasting  generally  about  five  months  in  each  country.  At  Florence, 
more  than  three  out  of  five  died."— ZTaZ/aw'^  "  History  of  the  Middle 
Agesr^oX,  I.,  p.  44. 
7 


122  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

and  the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth  century  to  the  scar- 
city of  labor  by  the  Black  Death  in  1349.  A  little  ex- 
amination of  the  industrial  phenomena  of  the  period, 
however,  shows  that  this  circumstance  is  inadequate 
to  account  for  the  industrial  events  that  followed.  The 
pestilence  in  1349,  like  the  famine  in  13 15,  was  the  cir- 
cumstance which  unquestionably  made  it  possible  for 
the  rise  in  wages  to  be  more  sudden  than  it  otherwise 
would  have  been,  but  neither  event  of  itself  could 
ever  cause  a  permanent  rise  in  real  wages.  The  only 
way  such  events  can  affect  wages  is  through  their  in- 
fluence upon  prices,  which,  as  before  explained,  cceteris 
paribuSy  affect  nominal  but  never  real  wages.  In- 
deed, if  famine,  pestilence,  and  their  sister  evil,  war, 
were  {he  promoters  of  real  wages,  then  the  laboring 
classes  in  Europe,  from  the  ninth  to  the  nineteenth 
century,  would  surely  have  been  in  the  most  opulent 
circumstances,  for  they  were  seldom  free  from  one  or 
other,  and  often  all,  of  these  wealth  and  life-destroy- 
ing agents.  Such  an  idea  could  only  be  born  of  the 
rankest  economic  heresy. 

That  the  increase  in  real  wages  which  commenced  in 
^350-51  was  the  result  of  the  same  general  causes  as 
that  in  1322,  and  must  have  taken  place  if  the  plague 
had  never  appeared,  is  shown  by  all  the  industrial  data 
of  the  period.  Now,  if  the  rise  of  wages  in  1350  was, 
as  MV.  Rogers  says,*  **  the  actual  effect  of  this  great 
and  sudden  scarcity  of  labor,"  they  would  have  fallen 
again  to  their  former  level  when  the  scarcity  of  labor 
ceased,  which,  he  admits,  was  very  soon.f     But,  in- 


*  "  Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages  in  England,"  p.  227, 
f  "  I  make  no  doubt  that  the  population  speedily  righted  itself,  as 
it  has  done  on  many  other  occasions,  when  a  sudden  or  abnormal 


THE  ''SCARCITY  OF  LABOR''    THEORY  FAILS.   123 

stead  of  that  they  continued  to  rise  for  half  a  century- 
after  the  scarcity  disappeared,  and,  despite  the  subse- 
quent and  almost  continuous  redundance  of  labor, 
they  have  never  fallen  to  the  same  point  since. 

Again,  if  this  scarcity  of  labor  was  the  real  cause  of 
the  rise  of  wages,  why  was  not  the  effect  somewhat 
proportionate  to  the  cause  ?  With  such  a  sudden 
diminution  in  the  population,  taking  his  own  estimate 
of  one  third,  there  could  be  nothing,  at  least  so  far  as 
the  supply  of  laborers  was  concerned,  to  prevent 
them  from  fixing  their  own  price  upon  their  labor, 
limited  only  by  the  ability  of  the  employer  to  pay. 
Indeed,  he  tells  us  *  that  such  was  the  scarcity  of  labor 
**  that  crops  were  often  suffered  to  rot  in  the  fields  for 
want  of  hands,"  and  "that  cattle  and  sheep  roamed 
at  large  over  the  country  for  lack  of  herdsmen." 

Now,  why,  under  these  circumstances,  did  not  wages 
rise  to  a  shilling  or  even  to  two  or  three  shillings  a 
day  ?  Why  did  the  laborers  only  aspire  to  fivepence 
(ten  cents)  a  day  when,  according  to  the  supply  and 
demand  theory,  they  could  have  had  many  times  as 
much  ?  Why  wages  could  not  be  kept  at  threepence 
a  day  seems  clear  to  Mr.  Rogers,  but  why  they  should 
not  rise  above  fivepence  a  day  his  **  scarcity  of  labor" 
doctrine  is  wholly  unable  to  explain.  Considered  in 
the  light  of  the  theory  we  have  presented,  however, 
this  whole  phenomena  at  once  becomes,  not  merely 
explainable,  but  perfectly  natural.  Viewed  from  the 
doctrine  that  the  standard  of  living,  instead  of  the 
abundance  or  scarcity  of  labor,  is  the  determining  in- 

destruction  of  human  life  has  occurred  in  a  people  and  the  people  has  a 
recuperative  power.  That  they  had  this  power  is  proved  by  the  events 
which  followed." — "  Work  and  Wages"  p.  226. 

*  '*  Work  and  Wages,"  p.  227.     American  edition. 


124  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

fluence  in  wages,  the  reason  why  wages  did  not  rise 
above  fivepence  a  day  at  once  becomes  as  clear  as  that 
of  the  inability  of  the  authorities  to  keep  them  at 
threepence.  It  was  simply  because  fivepence  a  day 
was  sufficient  to  defray  their  cost  of  living.  A  perma- 
nent rise  in  the  rate  of  real  wages  never  occurs  except 
from  a  rise  in  the  laborer's  social  character  and  stand- 
ard of  living ;  and  hence  is  always  proportionate 
thereto.  And  this  the  pestilence,  like  the  famine,  in 
the  very  nature  of  things,  could  not  produce. 

A  brief  glance  at  the  events  of  that  period  will  suffice 
to  show  that  the  increase  of  from  two  to  four  cents  a 
day  in  wages  after  1350  was  the  natural  result  of  the 
same  general  influences  which  led  to  the  rise  of  from 
two  to  three  cents  a  day  in  real  wages  after  1320-22. 
It  was  simply  a  part  of  the  same  social  and  industrial 
movement  already  referred  to,  which  had  its  rise  in 
the  free  towns  in  the  twelfth,  and  continued  to  gain 
momentum  till  the  last  quarter  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury. The  circumstances  which  contributed  so  largely 
to  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  the  free  towns  during 
the  thirteenth  century  began  to  operate  with  greater 
force  after  the  first  quarter  of  the  fourteenth. 

Rogers  tells  us  that  the  period  between  the  famine 
and  the  plague  (1322-50)  "was  one  of  exceptional 
prosperity.  The  harvests  were  generally  abundant, 
the  wages  of  labor  had  been  permanently  improved, 
and  all  kinds  of  produce  was  cheap.  The  early  days 
of  the  war  did  not  impair  the  general  well-being  of  the 
English  people."^  It  was  during  this  period  (1331) 
that  Edward  III.,  whom  Hallam  calls  **  the  father 
of  English  commerce,"   invited  the    Flemish  manu- 

*  "  Work  and  Wages,"  p.  219. 


THE  INCREASE  IN  THE  LABORER'S  WANTS.     125 

facturers  to  settle  in  England,*  in  order  to  promote 
the  manufacture  of  fine  woollen,  for  which  England 
has  ever  since  been  so  famous. 

The  Hanseatic  Confederacy  had  now  become  well  es- 
tablished, and  the  English  towns  were  fast  acquiring  a 
prosperous  foreign  trade.  "  This  opening  of  the 
northern  market,"  says  the  same  author,  "power- 
fully accelerated  the  growth  of  our  own  commercial 
opulence,  especially  after  the  woollen  manufacture 
had  begun  to  thrive.  From  about  the  middle  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  we  find  continual  evidence  of  a 
rapid  increase  of  wealth."  f  In  brief,  this  was  really 
the  dawn  of  a  new  industrial  system,  which  created 
new  wants  among  the  laboring  classes,  and  conse- 
quently increased  the  cost  by  raising  the  standard  of 
living.  Not  that  things  were  dearer,  but  a  greater 
quantity  of  them  was  needed.  The  demand  for  more 
home  comforts  was  becoming  general.  The  hovels 
contentedly  occupied  by  the  laborer  of  the  thirteenth 
century  now  failed  to  give  satisfaction.  This  is  shown 
by  the   fact  that  houses  with  chimneys,:]:  which  were 

*  The  following  remarkable  inducements  offered  by  Edward  III. 
to  the  Flemish  manufacturers  to  settle  in  England  are  quoted  by 
Blomefield  in  the  history  of  Norfolk,  from  Fuller's"  Church  History": 
*'  Here  they  should  feed  on  fat  beef  and  mutton  till  nothing  but  their 
fulness  should  stint  their  stomachs.  Their  beds  should  be  good,  and 
their  bedfellows  better,  seeing  the  richest  yeomen  in  England  would 
not  disdain  to  marry  their  daughters  unto  them,  and  such  the 
English  beauties  that  the  most  envious  foreigners  could  not  but  com- 
mend them."— 6><?  Hallam's  ''History  of  the  Middle  Ages,''  \o\.  H., 
p.  268. 

t  Hallam's  "  History  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  Vol.  U.,  pp.  271,  272. 

X  "  The  two  most  essential  improvements  in  architecture  during 
this  period,  which  had  been  missed  by  the  sagacity  of  Greece  and 
Rome,  were  chimneys  and  glass  windows.  Nothing  apparently  can 
be  more  simple  than  the  former,  yet  the  wisdom  of  ancient  times  was 


126  WEALTH  AMD  PROGRESS. 

previously  only  known  to  the  rich,  now  began  to  be 
demanded  by  the  laborer,  which  was  soon  followed  by 
the  additional  comfort  of  windows,  first  of  lattice,  then 
of  horn,  and  by  the  end  of  the  century  we  are  told 
glass  was  used.*  This  would  very  naturally  stimulate 
the  desire  for  something  in  the  way  of  furniture — not 
upholstery,  indeed,  but  something  better  than  mere 
blocks  of  wood  hewn  into  shape  with  a  broad-axe  and 
spokeshave,  as  was  the  case  prior  to  the  fourteenth 
century,  f 

This  increase  in  the  daily  wants,  and,  therefore,  the 
cost  of  living,  of  the  masses,  being  the  result  of  natural 
causes  which  had  been  in  operation  for  more  than  a 
century  previous,:]:  not  only  prepared  the  way  for  a 

content  to  let  the  smoke  escape  by  an  aperture  in  the  centre  of  the 
roof.  .  .  .  About  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  the  use  of 
chimneys  is  distinctly  mentioned  in  England  and  Italy,  but  they  were 
found  in  several  of  our  castles  which  bear  a  much  earlier  date." — 
Jlallani's  '*  History  of  the  Middle  Ages,**  Vol.  II.,  p.  293. 
*  Hallam's  "  History  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  Vol.  II.,  pp.  293,  294. 
f  Some  idea  of  the  quality  of  the  household  furniture  of  the  laborer 
before  this  time  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  a  full  set  of  car- 
penters' tools,  according  to  the  inventories  made  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  I.  (1301),  consisted  of 

A  broad  axe value 5^. 

Another  axe "    3 

An  adze *'    2 

A  square "     i 

A  marger,  or  spokeshave...     "     i 

Total  value is. 

For  a  full  statement  of  this  period  the  reader  is  referred  to  Eden's 
"  State  of  the  Poor,"  Vol.  III. 

X  "  A  silent  alteration  had  been  wrought  in  the  condition  and  char- 
acter of  the  lower  classes  during  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  This  was 
the  effect  of  increased  knowledge  and  refinement,  which  had  been 
making  a  considerable  progress  for  full  half  a  century,  though  they 
did  not  readily  permeate  the  cold  region  of  poverty  and  ignorance." 
— Hallam's  "History  0/ the  Middle  Ages,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  204. 


THE  RISE   OF   WAGES  NOT  ABNORMAL.         127 

rise  of  wages,  but  had  made  that  event  inevitable. 
Consequently,  when  the  pestilence  came  and  struck 
down  "  one  third  of  the  population,"  the  rise  of  wages, 
which  we  have  seen  had  already  commenced,  and 
would  otherwise  have  been  gradual,  now  took  place 
suddenly. 

But,  although  the  rise  in  wages  was  somewhat  sud- 
den, it  was  not  abnormal.  Being  governed  by  the  cost 
of  living,  wages  very  naturally  rose  only  as  that  had 
been  increased.  Unlike  the  rise  of  1 321,  there  was 
now  no  increase  in  prices,  the  harvests  having  for  many 
years  previous  been  very  good.  Therefore,  the  in- ' 
crease  in  the  cost  of  living  in  this  instance  was  mainly 
due  to  the  higher  standard  of  living,  caused  by  the 
new  wants  which  had  been  developed  by  the  influences 
to  which  we  have  referred.  To  meet  the  demands  of 
these  new  wants  a  rise  of  from  one  and  a  half  pence  to 
twopence  (three  to  four  cents)  a  day  was  demanded, 
which  increased  wages  to  about  fivepence  (ten  cents)  a 
day.  Nor  is  it  surprising  that  they  did  not  rise  to 
tenpence  (twenty  cents)  a  day  ;  indeed,  it  was  just  as 
natural  that  they  should  not  rise  to  tenpence  as  it  was 
that  they  should  rise  to  fivepence,  because  fivepence 
being  sufficient  to  satisfy  their  normal  wants,  ten- 
pence  would  be  more  than  they  could  consume,  and, 
therefore,  would  have  tended  to  induce  idleness  rather 
than  to  stimulate  industry.*  Hence,  they  had  no 
motive  for  demanding  it. 

But,  another,  and  the  most  conclusive  proof  that  the  ' 
rise  of  wages  was  the  natural  effect  of  the  improved 


*  See  Brassey's  experience  in  raising  wages  in  India  above  the 
wants  of  the  Hindu,  as  stated  in  his  book  "  Work  and  Wages,"  pp. 
88,  89. 


128  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

standard  of  living,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  united 
power  of  wealth,  law,  and  royal  authority  was  not  able 
to  force  them  down  again.  The  plague  struck  Eng- 
land in  August,  1348,  and  continued  till  January  or 
February  of  the  next  year.  Consequently,  during  the 
spring  and  summer  of  1349  wages  suddenly  rose.  The 
lords,  tenants,  farmers,  and  employers  generally,  be- 
came alarmed  at  the  prospect.  Parliament  being 
broken  up  through  the  plague,  they  appealed  to  the 
king,  who,  being  himself  an  extensive  landowner  and 
employer,  shared  their  consternation.  There  having 
beeri  no  rise  in  the  price  of  provisions,  the  cost  of  liv- 
ing, so  far  as  they  could  see,  was  unchanged.  They 
could  hardly  be  expected  to  recognize  the  claims  of 
new  wants  at  that  early  time,  when  the  political  econ- 
omy and  the  statesmanship  of  the  nineteenth  century 
still  regard  all  indulgence  of  new  wants  as  extrava- 
gance needing  to  be  suppressed  ;  and,  as  the  most 
modern  employers  often  do,  they  insisted  that  the  de- 
mands of  the  laborers  were  unnecessary  and  unjust  and 
should  therefore  be  resisted  by  the  iron  hand  of  au- 
thority. Accordingly,  in  1349  the  king  issued  a  proc- 
lamation decreeing  that  no  higher  than  customary- 
wages  should  be  paid.  It  was  soon  seen,  however, 
that  the  king's  mandate  was  unavailing.  His  majesty 
then  announced  that  not  only  would  laborers  be  pun- 
ished for  asking  higher  than  the  customary  rate  of 
wages,  but  severe  penalties  would  also  be  inflicted 
upon  all  tenant  occupiers,  crown  tenants,  or  even  upon 
inferior  barons,  priors  or  abbots  who  should  be  known 
to  do  so.  Many  laborers,  we  are  told,  were  put  into 
prison  for  disobeying  the  royal  edict. 

But  all  to  no  effect.     The  next  year  (1350)  Parlia- 
ment was  again  called  together,  for  the  first  time  after 


THE   STATUTE  OF  LABORERS,  129 

the  pestilence,  when  by  its  vote  the  substance  of  the 
royal  mandate  became  a  law,  under  that  famous  title 
*'The  Statute  of  Laborers  y'*  which  was  the  first  legisla- 
tive attempt  to  deal  with  wages.  And  it  remained 
upon  the  statute-book  over  two  hundred  years.  The 
preamble  of  this  statute  complains  of  the  **  insolence 
of  the  servants,"  who  asked  for  higher  wages  than  had 
been  previously  paid,  **  to  the  great  detriment  of  the 
lords  and  commons,"  and  ordains 

(i)  That  no  person  under  sixty  years  of  age,  serf  or  free,  except 
those  who  possessed  property,  lived  by  merchandise,  or  occupied 
land,  should  refuse  to  labor  for  the  same  wages  they  were  accustomed 
to  receive  in  the  twentieth  year  of  the  king's  reign  (T347),  which  it 
fixes  for  weeders  and  haymakers  at  one  penny  a  day,  reapers  for  the 
first  week  in  August  at  twopence,  and  the  remainder  of  harvest  three- 
pence a  day,  and  mowers  fivepence  an  acre.  They  were  to  be  hired 
by  the  year,  month,  or  day,  and  receive  these  wages  in  wheat  or 
money,  as  the  master  might  decide. 

(2)  That  the  lord  shall  have  the  first  claim  to  the  labor  of  the  serf, 
and  those  who  refuse  to  work  for  him  or  others  at  the  fixed  price  are 
to  be  sent  to  the  common  jail. 

(3)  That  all  persons  who  leave  their  employments  before  the  expira- 
tion of  their  contracts  shall  be  punished  by  imprisonment. 

(4)  That  even  the  lords  of  the  manor  who  shall  pay  more  than  this 
amount  shall  be  fined  in  treble  damages. 

(5)  That  artificers,  under  which  title  are  enumerated  "  saddlers, 
tanners,  farriers,  shoemakers,  tailors,  smiths,  carpenters,  masons, 
tilers,  pargetters,  carters,  and  others,"  are  liable  to  the  same  damages. 

(6)  That  food  must  be  sold  at  reasonable  prices. 

(7)  That  alms  shall  not  be  given  to  able-bodied  laborers. 

(8)  That  any  excess  of  wages,  either  given  or  taken,  shall  be  seized 
for  the  king's  use,  etc.* 

Notwithstanding  the  fulness  and  severity  of  this  act, 
the   enforcement  of  which,   we  may  be  sure,   lacked 

*  See  Hallam's  "  History  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  310; 
Rogers's  "  Workand  Wages,"  p.  228  ;  Wade's"  History  of  the  English 
Working  Classes,"  p.  9  ;  "  Wealth  of  Nations,"  Book  I.,  ch.  11,  Part 
III.,  p.  141. 

UHI7EB3ITF] 


130  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

nothing  the  king  and  the  lords  could  do,  wages  rose. 
But  while  imprisonment  of  laborers  served  to  increase 
the  amount  of  ungathered  crops,  it  did  not  prevent  the 
ultimate  and  permanent  rise  of  wages.  In  spite  of  the 
royal  mandate,  statute  law,  and  the  personal  power  of 
the  barons,  wages  rose,  as  is  shown  by  the  bailiffs'  rolls 
for  the  same  year,  from  fifty  to  seventy-five  per  cent, 
and,  in  some  instances,  even  more,  although  at  first, 
in  order  to  harvest  their  crops  and  avoid  the  penalties 
of  the  statute,  which  were,  doubtless,  for  some  time  at 
least,  mercilessly  inflicted,  the  bailiffs  in  their  entries 
frequently  drew  a  line  through  the  new  price,  *'  fivepence 
a  dayy'*  and  substituted  the  legal  price,  *'  threepence,**  * 
The  new  prices  were  soon  openly  and  regularly  paid, 
however,  as  is  seen  alike  by  the  bailiffs'  rolls  and  the 
frequent  complaints  of  employers  that  the  statute  was 
not  enforced. 

When  the  terrors  of  the  pestilence,  the  royal  edict, 
and  the  new  statute  had  spent  themselves,  and  "  the 
prices  paid  for  labor  had  been  steadied  by  custom,"  it 
was  found  that,  regardless  of  all  authority,  wages  had 
obeyed  the  natural  law,  and  adjusted  themselves  to 
the  new  standard  of  living,  and,  accordingly,  rose  from 
fifty  to  seventy-five  percent.f  Indeed,  "  the  result." 
to  use  the  language  of  Rogers,  "  is  marked,  universal, 
permanent,  and  conclusive,  even  if  we  had  not  on 
record  the  complaints  of  the  landowners  in  Pariia- 
ment,  that  the  *  Statute  of  Laborers  *  was  entirely  in- 
operative." X 

The  inability  of  the  combined  power  of  baronial  in- 


*  "  Work  and  Wag^s,"  p.  229. 

f  Ibid.,  p.  233. 

X  Ibid.,  p.  237.     Sec  also  Eden's  "  State  of  the  Poor." 


WANTS  GOVERN  WAGES.  131 

fluence,  royal  authority,  and  statute  law  to  prevent 
wages  from  gravitating  toward  the  cost  of  living  was 
shown  by  the  utter  failure  of  this  statute  ;  and  the 
principle  that  wants  govern  wages  is  unconsciously  in- 
scribed upon  all  subsequent  legislation  on  wages, 
which  was  almost  incessant  during  the  next  four  cen- 
turies. 


CHAPTER   V. 

THE  RISE   OF   REAL  WAGES  ARRESTED    BEFORE    I450. 
HOW  IT  WAS  BROUGHT  ABOUT. 

Finding  that  all  the  pains  and  penalties  the  gov- 
erning classes  were  able  to  inflict  could  not  prevent 
wages  from  rising  to  the  level  of  the  wants  of  the  peo- 
ple, they  began  to  legislate  upon  what  those  wants 
should  be — i.e.^  to  fix  the  standard  of  living  by  statute 
law.  In  1363,  in  response  to  the  numerous  complaints 
that  the  **  Statute  of  Laborers'*  was  not  enforced,  al- 
though it  had  been  re-enacted  three  years  previous 
(1360)  with  the  penalty  of  imprisonment  and  the  brand- 
ing of  the  forehead  with  a  red-hot  iron  for  its  viola- 
tion,* a  law  was  enacted  fixing  the  quantity,  qual- 
ity and  price  of  both  the  food  and  clothes  the  laborer 
should  have. 

This  statute  ordains  that  the  servants  or  laborers  of 
lords,  artificers  or  tradesmen  shall  receive  meat,  fish, 
or  the  offal  of  other  victuals,  etc.,  according  to  their 
station,  and  that  laborers  shall  wear  but  one  kind  of 
cloth,  of  which  the  whole  piece  did  not  cost  more 
than  a  shilling  a  yard.f 

*  "In  1360  the  *  Statute  of  Laborers'  was  confirmed  by  Parlia- 
ment, and  the  observance  of  it  was  enforced,  under  the  penalty  of  im- 
prisonment for  fifteen  days  and  burning  in  the  forehead  with  a  red- 
hot  iron  in  the  form  of  the  letter  *  F.'  If  they  fied  into  a  town  the 
magistrate  was  to  deliver  them  up  under  a  penalty  of  £\o  to  the  king, 
and  ;^5  to  the  master  who  should  reclaim  ikatmy—Edens  ''State 
0/ the  Poor,''  Vol.  I.,  p.  36. 

f  Eden's  "  State  of  the  Poor,"  pp.  38,  39.  See  also  Wade's  "  His- 
tory of  the  English  Working  Classes,"  p.  9. 


THE   OUTCRY  AGAINST  NEW   WANTS.  133 

It  was  soon  discovered,  however,  that  the  statute  of 
1363,  fixing  the  diet  and  apparel,  like  its  predecessor 
in  1350,  fixing  the  wages,  had  come  too  late  to  be 
effectual.  The  new  wants,  which  had  been  gradually- 
developing  for  more  than  a  century  previous,  had  be- 
come too  firmly  established  by  custom  to  be  wiped 
out  by  any  mere  statutory  enactment  ;  nothing  short 
of  physical  force  could  now  produce  that  effect. 

The  causes  which  had  produced  this  irrepressible 
change  in  the  wants,  and  hence  in  the  wages,  were 
still  active.  The  trade  and  commerce  of  the  towns 
was  still  prosperous,  and  the  social  intercourse  and  the 
needs  of  the  laboring  classes  were  steadily  progressing, 
not  merely  in  regard  to  their  food,  which  is  so  often 
erroneously  taken,  even  by  economists,  as  the  only 
measure  of  the  cost  of  living,  but  also  in  regard  to 
dress,  furniture,  and  amusements,  which  are  more  civ- 
ilizing than  diet.  No  better  evidence  of  this  is  needed 
than  the  general  outcry  of  the  rulers  and  writers  of  the 
times  against  the  extravagance  of  the  poor.*  Knyghton 
declares  that  **  in  1388  the  vanity  of  the  common  peo- 
ple in  dress  was  so  great  that  it  was  impossible  to  dis- 
tinguish the  rich  from  the  poor,  the  high  from  the  low, 
or  the  clergy  from  the  laity  by  their  appearance. 
Fashions  were  changing  constantly,  and  every  one  was 
trying  to  outdo  his  neighbor."  This  is  unquestion- 
ably a  greatly  overdrawn  picture  of  the  situation,  but 
the  very  exaggeration  proves  the  fact.  If  the  wants 
of  the  laborers  for  dress,  etc.,  had  not  been  materially 
increased,  and    caused  them  to  become   troublesome 

*  "  The  extravagance  of  dress  was  the  common  topic  of  complaint 
among  the  historians  of  that  period  (last  quarter  of  the  fourteenth 
century)."— £^^«'f  "  State  of  the  Poor,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  37- 


134  WEALTH  AND  PJ^OGRESS. 

in  their  demands  for  higher  wages,  there  could  have 
been  no  ground  for  this  alarm,  and  no  motive  for  ex- 
aggeration ;  in  fact,  nothing  to  exaggerate.* 

The  rolls  of  Parliament  for  that  period  contain 
evidence  of  the  same  fact.  They  inform  us  that 
**  in  the  year  1376  the  Commons  made  great  complaint 
that  the  masters  are  obliged  to  give  their  servants  and 
laborers  great  wages  to  prevent  them  from  running 
away."  f  Again,  in  1378,  we  are  told  that  "  the  Com- 
mons complained  in  Parliament  that  the  *  Statute  of 
Laborers  '  was  not  attended  to,  but  that  persons  em- 
ployed in  husbandry  fled  into  the  cities  and  became 
artificers,  mariners,  and  clerks,  to  the  great  detriment 
of  agriculture."  X 

It  is  thus  evident  that  the  employing  classes  now 
began  to  recognize  the  fact  that  this  rise  of  wages, 
which  all  the  powers  of  government  had  so  far  failed 
to  suppress,  originated  in  what  was  very  naturally  re- 
garded as  the  * '  evil  influences  of  the  cities  and  towns. '  * 
Having  treacherously  slain  Wat  Tyler,  put  to  death 
most  of  his  associates,  and  at  least  formally  suppressed 
his  insurrection.  Parliament,  in  1388,  again  resumed 
its  onerous  task  of  fixing  the  wants  and  wages  of  the 
laboring  classes.  They  now  commenced  to  direct  their 
efforts  against  the  real  cause  of  "  all  their  woes,"  viz., 
the  opportunities  for  social  intercourse  which  had  for 


*  In  referring  to  Knyghton's  clamor  against  the  irrepressible  de- 
mands of  these  increasing  wants  of  the  people.  Sir  Frederick  Eden 
wisely  observes  :  "  A  poor  man's  vanity  would  in  vain  have  coveted 
finer  clothes  than  he  was  used  to  had  not  his  industry  and  the  im- 
provement in  manufactures  afforded  him  the  means  of  gratifying  it," 
— '  •  State  of  the  Poor, ' '  Vol.  I . ,  p.  3  7. 

t  Eden's  "  State  of  the  Poor,"  Vol.  I.,  pp.  42,  43. 

t  Ibid.,   Vol.  I.,  p.  43.    .  . 


LAH^S  LIMITING  SOCIAL  MOBILITY.  135 

a  century  and  a  half  been  gradually  revolutionizing  the 
habits  and  customs  of  the  people. 

This  statute,*  after  prescribing  a  schedule  of  prices 
to  be  paid  in  the  different  occupations,  which  were 
somewhat  higher  than  those  of  the  previous  statutes, 
"  directs  that  no  servant  or  laborer  should  depart  from 
one  part  of  the  country  to  another  to  serve  or  to  reside 
elsewhere,  or  under  pretence  of  going  on  a  pilgrimage, 
without  a  letter  patent  under  the  king's  seal,  specify- 
ing the  cause  of  his  departure  and  the  time  of  his  re- 
turn, which  might  be  granted  by  a  justice  of  the  peace. 
Every  vagrant  who  could  not  produce  a  letter  patent 
was  to  be  taken  up,  put  into  the  stocks  and  imprisoned 
until  he  found  surety  to  return  to  his  former  master. "  f 

Previous  legislation  had  all  been  directed  against  the 
results  of  the  new  wants,  and,  consequently,  produced 
no  real  effect  upon  wages,  but  this  statute  directly  re- 
lated to  the  causes  which  determined  the  standard  of 
living ;  and  hence,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  was  at- 
tended with  most  disastrous  consequences  to  wages. 
From  the  date  of  this  statute  the  causes  began  to 
operate  which  finally  arrested  the  rise  of  wages,  and, 
consequently,  the  prosperity  of  the  English  laborers, 
which  afterward  became  practically  stationary  for  more 
than  three  centuries.  Although  wages  did  not  imme- 
diately stop  rising,  it  was  this  and  similar  statutes 
which  followed  it  that  laid  the  foundation  for  the  fear- 
ful arrest  of  material  prosperity  which  was  consum- 
mated before  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and 

*  I2th  Richard  II.,  ch.  3. 

f  Eden's  "  State  of  the  Poor,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  44.  "  By  a  very  harsh 
statute  in  the  12th  of  Richard  II.  no  servant  or  laborer  could  depart, 
even  at  the  expiration  of  his  service,  from  the  hundred  in  which  he 
lived  without  permission  under  the  king's  seal. " — ^'History  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages^''  Vol.  II.,  p.  207. 


136  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

became  so  marked  in  the  sixteenth.  In  fact,  this  en- 
actment really  sustained  the  same  relation  to  the  low 
wages  and  poverty  of  the  masses  during  the  sixteenth, 
seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  centuries  that  the  char- 
tered towns  of  the  thirteenth  century  did  to  the  in- 
creased wages,  prosperity,  and  progress  of  the  four- 
teenth and  fifteenth  centuries.  What  the  charters 
gave  this  statute  took  away.  The  free  towns  afforded 
opportunity  for  industrial  contact  and  social  inter- 
course and  association,  which  naturally  tended  to  in- 
crease the  wants  and  develop  the  social  and  intellectual 
character  of  the  laborer,  and  to  prepare  him  for  the 
freedom  he  thereby  acquired.  While  the  purpose  and 
effect  of  this  legislation,  so  far  as  it  was  operative,  was 
to  destroy  all  opportunity  for  travel  and  social  inter- 
course, it  prohibited  all  association,  prevented  the  de- 
velopment of  new  tastes  and  wants,  and  prepared  the 
laborer  for  the  despotism  and  degradation  which  fol- 
lowed for  nearly  three  centuries  after  the  death  of 
Henry  VII.^ 

That  the  law  of  1388  was  rigidly  enforced  is  manifest 
from  what  immediately  followed.  The  "  uplandish 
folk,"  as  the  country  people  were  called,  properly 
envying  the  prosperity  and  freedom  enjoyed  in  the 
towns,f  and  being  now  prohibited  from  leaving  the 
place  of  their  birth  or  changing  their  occupation  after 
twelve  years  of  age,  began  to  send  their  children 
under  that  age  into  the  towns,  and  bind  them  as  ap- 

*  Rogers's  "  Work  and  Wages,"  p.  508. 

\  "  It  was  natural,"  says  Hallam,  "  that  the  country  people  or'  up- 
landish folk,'  as  they  were  called,  should  repine  at  the  exclusion  from 
that  enjoyment  of  competence  and  security  for  the  fruits  of  their  labor 
which  the  inhabitants  of  towns  so  fully  possessed." — "  History  of  the 
Middle  Ages"  Vol.  II.,  pp.  204,  205. 


RISE   OF  REAL   WAGES  ARRESTED  BY  1M4.     137 

prentices  to  learn  some  trade  or  craft — become  "  arti- 
ficers." In  order,  therefore,  to  complete  the  statute 
of  1388,  and  make  it  operate  as  effectually  upon  chil- 
dren under  twelve  as  it  had  done  upon  all  over  that 
age,  it  was  further  enacted  in  1406*  "  that  no  person 
whosoever,  unless  possessed  of  land  or  rental  of  twenty 
shillings  a  year,  shall  put  a  child  of  any  age  apprentice 
to  any  trade  or  mystery  in  any  city  or  borough,  but 
that  children  should  be  brought  up  in  the  occupations 
of  their  parents,  or  other  business  suitable  to  their 
station  ;"  and  this  was  further  strengthened  by  another 
statute  of  similar  import  in  1483. 

It  was  thus  during  what  Rogers  calls  "  the  golden 
age  of  the  English  laborer"  that  the  foundation  of  his 
degradation  was  laid.  The  machinery  for  arresting 
the  growth  of  new  tastes  and  wants  among  the  masses 
was  now  put  into  full  operation,  and  we  shall  soon  see 
with  what  result.  Although  the  tendency  of  wages 
continued  upward  for  a  time,  long  before  the  middle 
of  the  fifteenth  century  the  rise  was  completely  and 
permanently  arrested.  This  is  clearly  shown  by  the 
rates  of  wages  as  fixed  by  subsequent  statutes,  that 
of  23d  Henry  VI.,  in  1444,  being  from  seventy  to 
ninety  per  cent  above  that  fixed  by  the  statutes  of  Ed- 
ward III.,  Richard  II.,  and  Henry  IV.  in  1350,  1388, 
and  I406,f  and  was  the  highest  point  they  ever  reached 
until  the  depreciation  of  the  currency  by  Henry  VIII. 
in  1545-46  and  Edward  VI.  in  1549-51,  which,  though 
it  increased  nominal  wages,  had  no  tendency  to  ad- 
vance real  wages.     In  fact,  while  through  the  variation 

*  7th  Henry  IV.,  ch.  17.  See  Eden's  "  State  of  the  Poor," 
Vol.  I.,  p.  63  ;  also  Hallam's  "  History  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  Vol.  H., 
p.  207. 

f  See  Eden's  "  State  of  the  Poor,*  Vol.  I.,  pp.  65,  66. 


138  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

of  prices  produced  by  changes  in  the  value  of  money 
and  bad  harvests,  nominal  wages  frequently  rose  dur- 
ing the  sixteenth,  seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  centu- 
ries, historians  agree  in  assuring  us  that  the  general  rate 
of  real  wages  never  again  rose  till  the  present  century. 
The  effect  of  this  legislation  soon  began  to  show  it- 
self, and  finally  proved  to  be  as  disastrous  to  the  pros- 
perity and  progress  of  the  laboring  class  as  its  most 
sanguine  projectors  could  have  hoped  or  desired.  In- 
deed, were  all  other  evidence  wanting  of  the  fact  that 
the  rise  of  wages  was  permanently  arrested  before  the 
middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  it  is  fully  demon- 
strated by  the  statute  of  Henry  VII.,  Chapter  XL, 
in  1496,  and  that  of  Henry  VIII.  in  1514;  for,  al- 
though nearly  three-quarters  of  a  century  had  elapsed 
between  the  statutes  of  the  Sixth  and  Eighth  Heniys, 
during  which  time  several  laws  regulating  the  price  of 
labor  had  been  passed,*  the  rate  of  wages  as  fixed  by 
them  all  was  substantially  the  same,  as  is  clearly  shown  by 
the  following  schedule  of  wages  fixed  by  the  statutes  of 
Henrys  VI.,  VII.,  and  VIII. ,  in  1444,  1496,  and  1514: 

*  See  Rogers's  "  History  of  Prices,"  Vol.  IV.,  pp.  17-23  ;  also 
Eden's  "  State  of  the  Poor,"  Vol.  I.,  pp.  30-75. 

f  The  wages  of  the  bailiff  in  the  statute  of  1496  are  stated  by  some 
early  writers  at  sixteen  shillings  and  eightpence,  which  is  clearly  an 
error.  Eden  thinks  it  should  be  one  pound,  sixteen  shillings  and  eight- 
pence.  But  this  appears  to  be  equally  improbable,  as  that  is  as  much 
out  of  proportion  to  the  rate  fixed  by  other  statutes  as  sixteen  shillings 
and  eightpence.  What  seems  to  be  more  probable,  however,  is  that 
in  the  earlier  copying  the  figures  i  and  6  have  got  placed  together  as 
i6j.  instead  of  £1  6s.  The  probable  correctness  of  this  view  is  sustained 
by  the  fact,  that  in  the  statute  of  15 14  where  all  the  other  wages  are 
exactly  the  same  as  in  that  of  1496,  the  bailiff's  wages  are  one  pound 
six  shillings  and  eightpence.  Rogers  appears  to  have  taken  this  view 
also,  as  he  has  put  it  at  one  pound  six  shillings  and  eightpence  ia  his 
"  Hiftory  of  Prices." 


RATE  OF  WAGES  IN  1444,  1496,  AND  1514. 


139 


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I40  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

It  is  difficult  to  ascertain  the  exact  cost  of  provisions 
for  each  year  in  the  foregoing  table,  but  all  authorities 
agree  that  the  price  of  wheat  was  lower  in  the  first 
than  in  either  of  the  other  years.*  If  we  take  Thorold 
Rogers,  who,  being  the  most  recent  writer  on  prices, 
has  had  the  best  opportunities  for  forming  a  correct 
estimate,  we  find  that  the  price  of  wheat  in  1444 1  was 
three  shillings  and  elevenpence  three  farthings  a 
quarter.  In  1496,:!:  according  to  the  same  writer,  it 
was  five  shillings  and  fivepence  halfpenny,  and  in 
I5I4§  it  was  five  shillings  and  fourpence.  If  we  take 
the  average  for  the  decades  in  which  each  of  these 
years  occur,  which  is  still  better,  we  find  the  result  to 
be  the  same.  The  average  price  of  wheat  from  1441 
to  1450  II  was  five  shillings  and  threepence  three  far- 
things ;  from  1491  to  1500  it  was  five  shillings  and  three 
farthings,  and  from  151 1  to  1520  it  was  six  shillings 
and  eightpence  three  farthings. 

It  is  therefore  very  clear  that  while  nominal  wages 
in  a  few  cases  were  a  fraction  lower,  real  wages  were, 
if  anything,  higher  in  1444  than  at  either  of  the  other 
periods,  which  conclusively  shows  that  the  rise  of  real 
wages  was  unmistakably  arrested  before  the  middle  of 
the  fifteenth  century. 

Nor  were  the  evil  effects  of  those  enactments  con- 
fined to  the  **  uplandish  folk,"  but  it  affected  the  towns 
also.  The  statutes  of  Richard  II.  and  Henry  IV.  vir- 
tually cut  off  the  industrial  and  social  intercourse  be- 

*  See  Tooke's  "  History  of  Prices,"  Vol.  VI.,  pp.  423,  424,  425  ; 
"Wealth  of  Nations,"  conclusion  of  Book  I.,  p.  206  ;  Arthur  Young's 
"  Progressive  Value  of  Money;"  Eden's  "State  of  the  Poor,"  and 
Rogers's  "  History  of  Prices,"  Vol.  IV. 

f  "  History  of  Prices,"  Vol.  IV.,  p.  284. 

X  Ibid.,  p.  286.  §  Ibid.,  p.  288.  |  Ibid.,  p.  292. 


DECLINE   OF   THE   CHARTERED    TOWNS.         141 

tween  the  laboring  classes  in  the  country  and  those  in 
the  towns,  which  was  necessarily  very  inimical  to  the 
growth  of  the  population  and  prosperity  of  the  latter. 
Several  circumstances  contributed  to  this  result. 
Under  these  conditions  the  population  of  the  country, 
or  "  open  towns,"  as  they  were  called,  naturally  in- 
creased. While  the  police  system  was  as  yet  by  no 
means  perfect,  the  necessity  of  walled  towns  to  protect 
the  industry  and  commerce  of  the  burgesses  against 
the  depredations  of  the  lords  had  largely  disappeared. 
With  the  fall  of  feudalism  and  the  abolition  of  serfdom 
and  villeinage  there  had  naturally  begun  to  grow  up  a 
middle  class,  who  were  neither  barons  nor  laborers ; 
and  as  the  exclusive  privilege  of  the  Guilds  in  the 
chartered  towns  prohibited  all  except  members  from 
entering  trade  or  manufacture,  this  class  naturally  set- 
tled down  in  the  open  towns,  where  they  were  free 
from  the  exactions  of  the  Guilds,  which  had  now  be- 
come very  despotic. 

Thus  manufacture,  trade,  and  commerce  began  to 
develop  in  the  open  towns,*  and  in  the  chartered 
towns  they  began  to  decline.f 

So  marked  was  this  that  by  the  end  of  the  fifteenth, 
or  early  in  the  sixteenth,  century  the  chartered  towns 

*  Birmingham  and  Manchester  were  very  prosperous  towns  early 
in  the  sixteenth  century.  In  the  33d  Henry  VIII.,  Manchester  is  re- 
ferred to  as  having  a  large  industrious  population  "  well  set  to  work 
in  making  of  cloths  as  well  of  linen  as  of  woollen,  whereby  the  in- 
habitants of  said  towns  have  gotten  and  come  unto  riches  and  wealthy 
living,"  etc. 

f  "  It  is  highly  probable,"  says  Rogers,  "  that  some  of  this  decay 
is  due  to  the  spread  of  woollen  manufacture  into  country  places  where 
the  charges  of  the  Guilds  did  not  apply." — "  Six  Centuries  of  Work 
and  Wages y 

Hume  and  Wade  say  substantially  the  same  thing. 


142  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

and  cities  had  lost  all  their  power  and  prestige.  The 
preamble  of  3d  Henry  VIII.  complained  that  *'  most 
cities,  boroughs,  and  towns  corporate  had  fallen  into 
decay  and  were  no  longer  inhabited  by  merchants  and 
men  of  substance,"  and  the  6th  Henry  VIII.  (in  15 15) 
also  complained  of  the  decay  of  the  towns,  setting 
forth  that  the  number  of  men,  women,  and  children 
occupied  in  industry  was  lessened  ;  that  husbandry  had 
decayed,  and  that  churches  were  destroyed,  divine 
offices  neglected  or  suspended,*  and  before  the  mid- 
dle of  the  century  they  had  not  only  lost  their  political 
power,  but  the  property  of  the  Guilds  was  confiscated 
by  the  king. 

Thus,  although  the  statutes  of  1388  and  1406  did 
not  produce  any  immediate  effect  upon  wages,  by  cut- 
ting off  the  opportunities  for  the  development  of  new 
wants  among  the  laborers,  they  set  in  operation  the 
causes  by  which,  before  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  the  rise  of  wages  was  permanently  arrested, 
the  free  towns  finally  overthrown,  and  the  people  pre- 
pared for  the  degradation  and  despotism  that  awaited 
them  at  the  hands  of  their  Tudor  and  Stuart  rulers. 
So  long  as  the  statutes  were  enacted  against  the  wages 
based  upon  the  wants  already  developed,  they  were 
economically  harmless,  but  when  they  were  directed 
against  the  opportunities  which  create  the  wants,  they 
at  once  became  disastrously  effective.  Thus  the  ter- 
rible industrial  events  that  followed  the  accession  of 
Henry  VIII.,  if  not  the  inevitable  result  of,  were 
certainly  made  possible  by  those  which  preceded  it. 
The  Act  of  Settlement  of  Charles  II.,  in  1662,  though 


*  See  Wade's  "  History  of  the  English  Working  Classes,"  p.  17; 
also  Rogers's  "  Work  and  Wages,"  p.  339. 


THE    TRUE   CAUSE   OVERLOOKED.  143 

enacted  for  opposite  reasons,  was  the  natural  result  of 
that  of  Richard  II.,  in  1388. 

I  have  dwelt  more  at  length  upon  these  facts  than 
would  have  been  necessary  in  a  treatise  of  this  nature, 
had  not  their  connection  to  wages  hitherto  been  en- 
tirely overlooked  by  both  historians  and  economists. 
Even  Mr.  Rogers,  in  his  excellent  work,  in  which  he 
takes  both  characters,  has  omitted  to  notice  their 
economic  importance.  He  appears  to  have  fallen  into 
that  common  mistake  of  attributing  the  rise  or  fall  of 
wages  to  the  circumstance  most  prominent  at  the  time 
or  immediately  preceding  the  change,  which  is  almost 
certain  to  be  erroneous.  Cause  and  effect  in  economic 
movements  are  seldom  prominently  in  view  at  the 
same  time.  The  operation  of.  natural  law  in  economics 
is  so  slow  and  gradual  that  the  cause  of  any  real  and 
permanent  change  in  wages  and  industrial  conditions 
is  invariably  to  be  sought  for  in  circumstances  that  have 
ceased  to  be  prominent  long  before  the  effects  are 
generally  observable. 

Thus,  instead  of  ascribing  the  rise  of  real  wages  and 
consequent  prosperity  and  progress  that  took  place  in 
the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  to  the  natural 
causes  which  began  to  operate  in  the  early  part  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  he  attributes  it  to  accidental  cir- 
cumstances (the  farnine  and  the  plague),  which  oc- 
curred the  same  year  the  rise  took  place.  And,  again, 
instead  of  attributing  the  stagnant,  if  not  declining 
economic  status  of  the  EngHsh  laborer  during  the  six- 
teenth, seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  centuries  to  the 
causes  which  began  to  operate  in  the  last  quarter  of 
the  fourteenth,  and  succeeded  in  permanently  arrest- 
ing the  rise  of  wages  before  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  he  ascribes  it  all  to  the  vicious  blunders  of 


144  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

Henry  VIII.*  In  truth,  however,  if  the  causes  which 
produced  the  change  in  the  fourteenth  century  had 
been  allowed  to  continue,  the  mere  debasement  of  the 
currency  or  plunder  of  the  Guilds  by  Henry  could 
not  have  produced  any  permanent  change  in  real 
wages.  In  fact,  the  natural  causes  which  develop  the 
wants  and  tend  to  increase  real  wages  ceased  to  oper- 
ate at  the  close  of  the  fourteenth,  and  did  not  com- 
mence again  on  a  general  scale  till  the  latter  part  of 
the  eighteenth  century  ;  consequently,  there  was  no 
permanent  rise  of  real  wages  for  nearly  four  centuries. 

*  "  Work  and  Wages,"  pp.  324,  325,  345,  378. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

MOVEMENT   OF  WAGES  FROM   THE  FIFTEENTH  TO   THE 
NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

Section  I. — Why   Nominal    Wages   do    not   Rise  and 
Fall  with  the  Rise  and  Fall  of  Prices, 

We  have  seen  in  the  previous  chapter  that  the  social 
influences  which  tend  to  develop  new  wants  in  the 
laborer,  and  consequently  raise  his  standard  of  living 
and  advance  real  wages,  were  effectually  arrested  by 
the  second  quarter  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  that 
real  wages  were  practically  stationary  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  four  following  centuries. 

During  this  period,  therefore,  the  cost  of  living  was 
affected  only  by  those  causes  which  operate  upon  the 
price  of  commodities,  such  as  changes  in  the  currency, 
good  and  bad  harvests,  and  only  influenced  nominal 
wages.  Consequently,  if  our  theory  be  correct,  wages 
(nominal  wages,  of  course)  will  be  found  not  only  to 
rise  with  the  rise  of  prices,  but  also  to  fall  with  the 
fall  of  prices  ;  which  is  just  what  the  industrial  history 
of  the  sixteenth,  seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  centuries 
shows  us  did  take  place.  Although  there  was,  for  the 
reasons  before  stated,  no  appreciable  rise  of  real  wages, 
nominal  wages  rose  more  than  fourfold.  This  is  the 
more  remarkable  because  during  that  time  wages  were 
not  allowed  to  freely  follow  the  natural  course  of 
economic  movement,  but  were  fixed  by  authority,  with 
the  persistent  effort  to  keep  them  at  the  minimum. 
8 


i46  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

Although  the  monarchical  power  was  more  absolute  at 
this  period  than  it  was  in  the  fourteenth  century,  it 
proved  to  be  as  impossible  for  royal  authority  and 
statute  law  to  prevent  wages  from  gravitating  toward 
the  cost  of  living  under  the  Tudors  and  Stuarts  as  it 
did  under  the  Plantagenets. 

I.t  should  always  be  remembered,  however,  that  in 
thus  laying  it  down  that  real  wages  are  governed  by 
the  standard  of  living,  and  that,  cceter is  paribus,  nom- 
inal wages  are  ultimately  governed  by  prices,  it  is  not 
claimed  that  nominal  wages  always  rise  and  fall  simul- 
taneously with  the  rise  and  fall  of  prices.  If  prices 
never  varied  except  from  the  gradual  operation  of 
social  and  economic  causes,  this  would  be  true,  or  so 
nearly  true  that  no  general  disparity  between  prices 
and  wages  would  ever  exist.  But  this  is  not,  nor  is  it 
possible  that  it  can  be,  the  case  where  the  change  of 
prices  is  sudden  and  artificial.  The  price  of  labor  is 
always  less  susceptible  to  the  sudden  influence  of  arti- 
ficial causes  than  that  of  commodities.  The  reason 
for  this,  on  a  moment's  reflection,  becomes  very  clear. 
The  sellers  of  labor  are  more  numerous,  and,  therefore, 
each  one  possesses  a  much  smaller  proportion  of  the 
whole  amount  offered  for  sale  than  the  sellers  of  com- 
modities. Besides,  they  are  more  ignorant,  more 
necessitous,  and  that  which  they  have  to  sell  is  much 
more  perishable.  Therefore,  if  they  have  the  incen- 
tive— which  they  have  not — they  have  neither  the 
ability  nor  opportunity  to  study  and  anticipate  the 
sudden  changes  in  prices  produced  by  artificial  causes, 
as  is  constantly  being  done  by  the  sellers  of  com- 
modities. For  example,  in  the  case  of  a  bad  harvest, 
or  other  cause  known  to  affect  the  price  of  commod- 
ities, it  is  a  common  occurrence  for  merchants  to  put 


WAGES  ALWA  YS  THE  LAST  TO  RISE  OR  FALL,  147 

up  the  price  of  wheat,  coal,  or  whatever  is  on  hand, 
long  before  any  portion  of  the  short  supply  reaches 
the  market.  But  this  is  not  the  case  with  labor. 
Upon  learning  that,  through  a  failure  of  crops  or  a 
change  in  the  value  of  money,  the  prices  of  pro- 
visions are  likely  to  advance,  the  laborer  does  not  at 
once  put  up  the  price  of  his  labor,  nor  does  he  do  this 
immediately  after  the  advance  of  prices.  It  is  not 
until  his  wages  fail  to  procure  for  him  what,  according 
to  his  established  habits,  have  become  necessities,  that 
he,  with  any  degree  of  seriousness,  begins  to  insist 
upon  having  a  higher  price  for  his  labor. 

It  is  because  wages  thus  move  much  slower  than 
prices^-when  the  latter  are  suddenly  affected — that  We 
often  see  prices  rise  and  fall  again,  without  any  change 
taking  place  in  wages.  But  while  wages  are  slow  to 
rise,  they  are  for  the  same  reason  slow  to  fall."^"  Al- 
though the  laborer  is  very  tardy  in  making  a  demand 
for  higher  wages,  he  is  also  very  reluctant  to  submit 
to  a  reduction,  which  fact  explains  why  so  many 
strikes  are  instituted  to  resist  a  fall,  and  so  few  to 
enforce  a  rise  of  wages. 


*  According  to  all  experience,  whether  within  modern  observation 
or  recorded  in  history,  it  may  be  laid  down  as  an  established  maxim 
that  labor  is  the  last  of  the  objects  of  exchange  to  rise  in  consequence 
of  dearth  or  depreciation,  and  that  commonly  the  price  of  labor  is  the 
last  to  fall  in  consequence  of  increased  abundance  of  commodities  or 
increased  value  of  money." — Tooke's  "History  of  Prices,'*  Vol.  I.,  p.  71. 


148  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS, 

Section  II. — Wages  and  Prices  in  the  Sixteenth  Cen- 
tury—  The  Effect  of  Henry  VIII,  *s  Depreciation  of  the 
Currency, 

In  considering  the  law  of  wages y  however,  the  ques- 
tion is  not  what  decides  wages  at  any  particular  time, 
but  what  determines  the  general  direction  or  tendency 
of  wages  through  all  time.  Consequently,  the  question 
is  not  what  are  the  facts  for  this  or  that  year,  nor  for 
any  particular  years  in  this  or  that  decade,  but  what 
are  the  facts  for  a  considerable  number  of  years  or  dec- 
ades taken  together.  For  it  is  impossible  to  form  any 
approximately  correct  conclusion  as  to  the  economic 
tendency  of  wages  unless  our  observations  extend 
over  a  sufficiently  long  period  for  the  causes  that  have 
operated  upon  both  wages  and  prices  to  have  fully 
spent  themselves.  This  is  what  Thorold  Rogers,  in 
discussing  the  movement  of  wages  during  this  period, 
fails  to  do.  As  an  historian  he  may,  in  the  main,  be 
relied  upon  ;  but  as  an  economist  he  is  erratic,  incon- 
sistent, and  often  unsound,  his  conclusions  frequently 
being  strangely  at  variance  with  his  own  data.  This 
is  strikingly  apparent  in  his  discussion  of  the  move- 
ment of  wages  from  the  fifteenth  to  the  nineteenth 
century.  Because  during  that  period  there  was  at  times 
a  disparity  between  the  movement  of  wages  and  that 
of  prices,  he  concludes  that  they  sustain  no  important 
economic  relation  to  each  other. 

Upon  the  assumption  that  wages  "  do  not  rise  with 
prices,"  he  concludes  that  every  advance  in  prices  is 
necessarily  inimical  to  the  laborer,*  as  the  increase 

*  "  As,  therefore,  wages  do  not  rise  with  prices,  no  crime  against 
labor  is  more  injurious  than  expedients  adopted  on  the  part  of  Gov- 
ernment which  tend  to  raise  prices." — "  Work  and  Wages"  p.  429. 


THE  LABORER  IN  "1877"    AND  IN  "1450."       149 

goes  to  profits  at  the  expense  of  wages.*  The  fact 
that  during  the  period  under  consideration,  through 
depreciations  of  the  currency,  bad  harvests,  etc., 
prices  of  provisions  rose,  he  affirms  that  the  economic 
condition  of  the  laborer  was  worse,  very  much  worse, 
during  the  seventeenth,  eighteenth,  and  the  first  half 
of  the  nineteenth  centuries  than  it  was  in  the  fifteenth. 
Indeed,  he  even  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  highest- 
paid  mechanics  in  London  at  the  close  of  the  third 
quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  had  not  reached  the 
economic  eminence  occupied  by  their  ancestors  in  the 
middle  of  the  fifteenth  century.  In  other  words,  that 
the  English  laborer  was  not  as  well  off  in  "  1877  " 
with  "  forty-two  shillings  and  ninepence  a  week"  (ten 
dollars  and  seventeen  cents),  and  occupying  a  four  or 
six-room  house  with  modern  appointments,  as  he  was 
in  1450  with  **  three  shillings  and  fourpence  a  week" 
(eighty  cents),  occupying  a  hut  without  chimney, 
window,  or  sanitation,  or  anything  that  can  be  prop- 
erly dignified  by  the  name  furniture.  The  fact  that 
some  of  Mr.  Rogers's  most  pessimistic  and  least  war- 
ranted statements  regarding  the  relative  economic  con- 
dition of  the  laborer  during  these  periods  are  constantly 
being  quoted  to  sustain  palpable  economic  heresies  is 
my  apology  for  dwelling  here  upon  what  otherwise 
might  be  properly  regarded  as  unnecessary  detail. 

In  support  of  his  statements  that  **  wages  do  not 
rise  with  prices,  and  that  the  condition  of  the  laborer 
was  from  fifty  to  seventy  per  cent  better  in  the  fifteenth 
than  it  was  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  cen- 
turies," he  compares  wages  and  the  price  of  wheat  at 


*  "  It  is  assuredly  from  the  stint  of  wages  that  the  profits  of  middle- 
men have  been  derived." — "  Work  and  Wages"  p.  544. 


15©  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS, 

the  close  of  the  former  with  those  of  exceptionally 
dear  years  during  the  latter  centuries. 

Of  course,  if  we  compare  the  wages  and  the  price  of 
wheat  in  1495  with  those  of  1725,  1770,  and  1795,  the 
dates  to  which  Mr.  Rogers  most  delights  to  refer,  we 
shall  find  that  the  legal  wages  did  enable  the  laborer 
to  procure  more  food  in  the  former  than  in  the  latter 
years.  But  this  fact  does  not  necessarily  prove 
either  that  wages  do  not  tend  to  rise  with  the  rise  of 
prices  or  that  the  laborer's  general  condition  was  really 
worse  in  the  latter  period  than  in  the  former.  While 
these  facts  are  correct,  their  comparison  for  such  a 
purpose  is  extremely  treacherous  and  misleading. 
True,  they  give  the  actual  state  at  particular  dates, 
but  they  contribute  little  toward  showing  the  general 
condition,  and  nothing  toward  establishing  general 
tendencies,  simply  because  they  represent  only  tem- 
porary extremes.  The  price  of  wheat  in  1495  was 
four  shillings  and  three  farthings*  a  quarter,  being, 
with  two  or  three  exceptions,  lower  than  at  any  time 
for  two  hundred  years.  In  1725,  1770,  and  1795  it 
was  at  famine  prices,  in  the  last-named  year  being  five 
pounds  and  four  shillings, f  the  highest  ever  known 
down  to  that  date.  In  each  of  these  years,  however, 
as  the  facts  given  elsewhere  by  Mr.  .  Rogers  show, 
wages  began  to  rise  toward  the  prices,  and  were  fre- 
quently supplemented  from  other  sources,  as  we  shall 
hereafter  see.  Therefore,  to  cite  the  wages  and  prices 
at  such  dates  to  indicate  the  general  industrial  con- 
dition of  the  period,  is  not  only  unfair,  but  fallacious. 


*  Rogers's  "  Work  and  Wages,"  p.  389.     Adam  Smith  puts  it  at 
three  shillings  and  fourpence. 

t  Ibid.,  p.  486.  ' 


AVERAGES    THE   ONLY  RELIABLE  DATA.        151 

No  data,  we  repeat,  can  be  of  any  real  importance 
for  such  a  purpose  that  does  not  enable  us  to  compare 
the  wages  and  prices  of  both  good  and  bad  years  taken 
together  for  a  considerable  period — say  several  decades, 
at  least. 

Fortunately,  such  data  are  at  hand  sufficient  to 
clearly  indicate  the  direction  of  the  general  move- 
ment of  both  prices  and  wages.  From  the  middle  of 
the  reign  of  Henry  VI.  to  that  of  Henry  VHI.  (1444- 
1540)  both  real  and  nominal  wages  were  practically 
unchanged,  the  average  wages  of  the  artisans  through- 
out the  country  being  about  sixpence,  and  those  of 
common  laborers  fourpence  a  day.*  Henry  VIH. 
began  to  issue  what  Rogers  so  bitterly  designates 
**  base  money**  in  1545-46,  which  example  was  fol- 
lowed by  his  son,  Edward  VI.,  in  1549-51  ;  and  it 
was  restored  nine  years  afterward  (1560)  by  Elizabeth. 
This  change  in  the  currency  was,  of  course,  followed 
by  a  general  rise  in  prices,  to  which  Mr.  Rogers  attrib- 
utes all  the  ills  of  the  English  laborer  from  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  to  that  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, f 

Now,  Mr.  Rogers  has  himself  furnished  us  with  a 
complete  schedule  of  wages  and  the  price  of  wheat,:]: 
which  is  the  best  indication  of  the  cost  of  living  during 
that  period — for  six  and  a  half  successive  decades  of  the 
most  important  part  of  the  sixteenth  century — viz., 
from  1520  to  1582,  inclusive,  as  here  given  : 

*  Rogers's  "  Work  and  Wages,"  p.  388. 

f  **  The  effect  of  Henry's  and  Edward's  base  money,  though  it 
lasted  only  sixteen  years,  was  potent  enough  to  dominate  in  the  his- 
tory of  labor  and  wages  from  the  sixteenth  century  to  the  present 
time  (1880)." — "  Work  and  Wages"  p.  345. 

X  "  History  of  Prices,"  Vol.  IV.,  p.  731. 


152 


WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 


Price  of 
Years.     Wheat  per 
Quarter. 

Weekly 
Wages. 

Years. 

Price  of 
Wheat  per 
Quarter. 

Weekly 
Wages. 

1520 

1521 

1522 

1523 

1524 

1525 

1526 

1527 

1528 

1529 

1530 

I53I 

1532 

1533 

1534 

1535 

1536 

1537 

1538 

1539 

1540 

I541 

1542 

1543 

1544 

1545 

1546 

1547 

1548 

1549 

1550 

J.  d. 
9   4i 

7  8i 
6   oi 
5   6 
5   li 

5  5 

6  2\ 

12  II 

8  loi 
8  10 
8   5 
8   2ir 

8  0 

7  8 
7   0 

10   3i 

10   7i 

7   I 

6  Hi 

5   7i 
5   8i 

9  oi 

7  Hi 
9   3i 
9   oi- 

15  6f 

8  3i 
4  II 
8   If 

16  4 
18   0 

s.       d. 
2   9 

2   7i 
2    8 
2   7i 

2    8 

2   7i 
2   8i 

2   lOj 

2   9i 
2   9 

2    8 
2   8i 
2   8i 
2   9i 

2   10 
2   Hi 
2   loj 
2   7f 
2   Hi 
2   8i 
2   9i 

2   lOi 
2   lOj 
2   II 
2   loi 
2   lOi 
2   7f 

2  lOf 

3  2i 
3   6 
3   4 

1551 

1552 

1553 

1554 

1555 

1556...... 

1557 

1558 

1559 

1560 

1561 

1562 

1563 

1564 

1565 

1566 

1567 

1568 

1569 

1570 

157I 

1572 

1573 

1574 

1575 

1576 

1577 

1578 

1579 

1580 

1581 

1582 

s.         d. 
20   4 
10   6| 

10  0 

18  8i 
22   o^ 
28   5i 

8  4i 

9  3i 

11  of 

14  2f 

15  8 

10   Hi 

19  9i 
10  loi 

10  7 

16  5i 

11  I 
II   3i 

11  9i 
9  10 

12  5i 

13  6f 
26   3* 

14  2i 

15  II 
22    2i 

20  2 

17  4i 
17   6i 

20  0 

21  5i 
19   li 

X.    d. 
4    li 

3  ^i\ 

4  6i 

3  ^^\ 

4  o\ 
4   3i 
3  loi 

3  6 

4  of 

5  0 

^   ^ 
4   9i 

4   oi 

4   7 

4   7f 

4  8f 

5  li 
4   6i 
4  II 
4   7 
4   7f 
4  loi 
4  Hi 
4   8 
4  H 
4   8i 
4  lof 
4   8 
4   9i 

4  Hi 

5  5i 
4  10 

Average.. 

8   7i 

2   9i 

Average.. 

15   8 

4   6f 

This  table  includes  thirty-one  years  before  and 
thirty-two  years  after  Henry's  and  Edward's  depre- 
ciation of  the  currency,  and  therefore  affords  a  good 
opportunity  for  observing  whether  or  not  nominal 
wages  tend  to  move  in  the  same  direction  as  prices. 
It  will  be  observed  from  the  table  that  many  times 
during  those  sixty-three  years  there  appears  to  be  a 
great  difference  between  the  movement  of  prices  and 


THE  A  VERAGE  RISE  IN  WHEAT  AND  WAGES.    153 

that  of  wages.  For  example,  in  1526  the  average 
price  of  wheat  was  six  shilHngs  and  twopence  half- 
penny per  quarter,  and  wages  two  shillings  and  eight- 
pence  farthing  per  week.  The  next  year,  1527,  wheat 
rose  over  one  hundred  per  cent,  the  average  price 
being  twelve  shillings  and  elevenpence  ;  but  there  was 
a  good  harvest  in  1528,  and  wheat  fell  again  to  eight 
shillings  and  tenpence  farthing.  Meantime,  wages 
only  rose  to  two  shillings  and  ninepence  halfpenny. 
Thus,  while  the  price  of  wheat  rose  over  one  hundred 
per  cent,  it  remained  up  so  short  a  time  that  wages 
only  rose  twopence,  or  about  sixteen  per  cent.  On 
the  other  hand,  in  1556  wheat  had  risen  to  twenty- 
eight  shillings  and  fivepence  halfpenny  per  quarter, 
and  wages  to  four  shillings  and  threepence  farthing 
a  week.  The  next  year  the  price  of  wheat  fell  to 
eight  shillings  and  fourpence  three  farthings,  or  about 
seventy-five  per  cent,  while  wages  only  fell  to  three 
shillings  and  tenpence  farthing,  or  about  ten  per  cent. 
If,  however,  we  take  the  average  wages  and  the 
price  of  wheat  for  the  whole  three  decades  before 
the  issue  of  the  **  base  money" — 1520  to  1550,  inclu- 
sive— we  find  that  wheat  for  the  whole  period  was 
eight  shillings  and  sevenpence  halfpenny  per  quarter, 
and  wages  were  two  shillings  and  ninepence  three 
farthings  a  week.  Thus,  as  compared  with  1520,  the 
price  of  wheat  fell  eight  per  cent,  while  wages  re- 
mained about  the  same.  Taking  the  thirty-two 
years  after  the  change  in  the  currency,  the  average 
price  of  wheat  was  fifteen  shillings  and  eightpence 
per  quarter,  and  wages  were  four  shillings  and  seven- 
pence  a  week.  Hence,  as  compared  with  155 1  (the 
first  of  the  thirty-two  years),  the  average  price  of 
wheat  fell  about  twenty-three  per  cent,  and  the  aver- 


154  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

age  wages  for  the  same  period  rose  about  ten  per  cent. 
If  we  take  the  whole  period,  which  is  the  only  true 
way,  we  find  the  average  price  of  wheat  for  the  sixty- 
three  years  was  twelve  shillings  and  twopence  three 
farthings  per  quarter,  and  wages  were  three  shillings 
and  eightpence  one  farthing.  Thus,  as  compared 
with  1520,  the  price  of  wheat  rose  twenty-eight  per 
cent  and  wages  twenty-seven  per  cent. 

If  we  examine  the  statutes  fixing  the  legal  rate  of 
wages  during  that  period,  the  object  of  which  was  to 
prevent  wages  from  rising,  we  shall  find  that  they, 
too,  followed  the  movement  of  prices.  Early  under 
the  reign  of  Elizabeth  (1563)  an  act  was  passed  author- 
izing the  county  magistrates  to  meet  twice  a  year  and 
"  fix  the  rate  of  wages  in  accordance  with  the  times." 
The  preamble  of  this  statute  dilates  upon  "  the  grief 
and  burdens  of  the  poor  laborer  and  hired  man,"  and 
solemnly  declares  that  on  account  of  the  high  prices 
\  **  the  wages  of  laborers  are  too  small  and  not  answerable 
to  these  times'  Even  if  this  was  all  hypocritical  cant, 
and  the  whole  purpose  of  the  statute  was  to  prevent 
wages  from  rising,  as  Mr.  Rogers  claims,  it  only  the 
more  clearly  proves  the  impossibility  of  preventing 
wages  from  gravitating  toward  the  cost  of  living. 

In  pursuance  of  this  statute,  the  magistrates  through- 
out the  country  met  at  Michaelmas  and  Easter  (spring 
and  fall)  to  fix  the  rate  of  wages  according,  in  the 
words  of  the  Rutland  magistrates  in  1564,  to  "the 
price  of  linen,  woollen,  leather,  corn  (wheat),  and 
other  victuals."  In  doing  this,  it  is  needless  to  say, 
they  put  them  up  as  little  and  down  as  much  as  pos- 
sible. But  the  records  of  the  semi-yearly  proclama- 
tions of  these  magistrates  clearly  show  that  the  wages 
were  increased  and  diminished  according  to  the  rise 


WAGES  FIXED  BY    THE  PRICE   OF  BREAD.       155 

and  fall  in  prices,  mainly  of  wheat,  which  was  then  the 
staple  article  of  food.* 

To  such  an  extent  was  the  cost  of  living  uncon-^ 
sciously  recognized  as  the  standard  of  wages,  that  a 
sliding  scale  was  adopted  by  which  wages  should  rise 
and  fall  with  the  variation  in  the  price  of  bread.  In 
1795  the  Berkshire  magistrates  decided  that  when  the 
**  gallon  loaf"  cost  one  shilling  the  laborer  should 
receive  from  the  parish  sixpence  a  day  and  three- 
pence a  day  for  each  of  his  family,f  and  for  every  rise 
of  one  penny  in  the  price  of  the  loaf,  he  should  receive 
an  increase  of  threepence  a  week  for  himself  and  one 
penny  a  week  for  each  of  his  children.  This  plan  was 
so  popular  that  bills  were  twice  introduced  into  Parlia- 
ment to  make  it  a  law,  and,  although  it  failed  to 
become  a  statute,  it  was  sustained  by  the  courts,  :j:  and 
became  a  general  practice,  supplanting  the  system  of 
fixing  wages  by  statute  law.  But  economic  wages 
being  governed  by  the  cost  of  living,  the  allowance 
system  could  make  no  permanent  difference  to  the 
laborer.  While  it  might  enable  the  employer  to  pay 
less,  it  did  not  give  the  laborer  more.  What  he  lost 
in  wages  he  received  in  allowance,  and  what  he  re- 
ceived in  allowance  he  lost  in  wages.  This,  indeed,  is 
now  generally  admitted  by  all  economists. 

"  There  is  a  rate  of  wages,"  says  Mill,§  "  either  the 
lowest  on  which  the  people  can,  or  the  lowest  on 
which  they  will  consent,  to  live.   .   .  .     Their  habits 

*  See  Rogers's  "Work  and  Wages;"  also  Eden's  "State  of  the 
Poor." 

f  See  Eden's  "  State  of  the  Poor,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  577. 

X  "  Work  and  Wages,"  p.  437. 

§  "  Principles  of  Political  Economy,"  Book  II.,  ch.  12,  §  4,  pp. 
450-452. 


156  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

will  not  be  altered  for  the  better  by  giving  them  parish 
pay.  ...  It  is  well  known  that  the  allowance  sys- 
tem did  practically  operate  in  the  mode  described,  and 
that  under  its  influence  wages  sank  to  a  lower  rate 
than  had  been  known  in  England  before.  .  .  All  sub- 
sidies in  aid  of  wages  enable  the  laborer  to  do  with 
less  remuneration,  and  therefore  ultimately  bring 
down  the  price  of  labor  by  the  full  amount,  unless  a 
change  be  wrought  in  the  ideas  and  requirements  of 
the  laboring  class — an  alteration  in  the  relative  value 
which  they  set  upon  the  gratification  of  their  instincts 
and  upon  the  increase  of  their  comforts  and  the  com- 
forts of  those  connected  with  them." 


Section   III.  —  Wages  and  Prices  during  the   Seven- 
teenthy  Eighteenth^  and  Nineteenth  Centuries, 

If  we  examine  the  general  movement  of  wages  and 
prices  during  the  seventeenth,  eighteenth,  and  nine- 
teenth centuries  we  find  the  same  tendency  constantly 
observable.  The  average  price  of  wheat  during  the 
first  decade  in  the  seventeenth  century  was  twenty- 
nine  shillings  per  quarter,  and,  according  to  Arthur 
Young,  the  average  price  for  the  whole  century  was 
thirty-eight  shillings  and  twopence,  being  a  rise  of  a 
little  less  than  one  third  for  the  whole  century.  The 
average  rate  of  wages  at  the  commencement  of  the 
century  was  four  shillings  a  week,  and,  according  to 
the  above  authority,  the  average  rate  of  wages  for  the 
century  was  tenpence  and  three  farthings  a  day,  or 
about  five  shillings  and  fivepence  a  week,  being  a 
rise  of  thirty  per  cent  for  the  whole  period.  So,  too, 
with  the  eighteenth  century.     The  price  of  wheat  at 


A  VERA  GE  WA  GES  AND  PRICES  FROM  1700  TO  1800.  1 5  7 

the  commencement  of  the  century  (1701)  was,  accord- 
ing to  Tooke,  twenty-eight  shillings  and  fivepence  per 
quarter,  and  the  average  for  the  whole  century  was 
thirty-eight  shillings  and  sevehpence  one  farthing,  or 
a  rise  of  about  one  fourth,  although,  as  will  be  seen, 
it  is  only  fivepence  a  quarter  higher  than  the  average 
for  the  previous  century.  The  average  wages  at  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  were  about  six 
shillings  a  week — agricultural  laborers  five  shillings 
and  sixpence,  and  artisans  seven  shillings  and  sixpence 
a  week.  The  average  wages  from  1701  to  1730  rose 
to  six  shillings  for  agricultural  laborers  and  nine  shil- 
lings for  artisans.  From  1731  to  1800  they  were  eight 
shillings  a  week  for  the  former  and  sixteen  shillings 
for  the  latter,  the  average  for  the  century  being  about 
seven  shillings  a  week  for  agricultural  laborers  and 
twelve  shillings  and  sixpence  for  artisans,  or,  both 
taken  together,  eight  shillings  and  threepence  a 
week,  showing  an  average  rise  for  the  whole  period  of 
forty  per  cent.*  Thus  it  will  be  observed  that  the 
average  rise  in  the  price  of  wheat  and  labor  for  the 
whole  century  over  that  which  prevailed  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  century  is  about  the  same  ;  but,  as 
compared  with  the  average  of  the  previous  century, 
it  will  be  seen  that  wages  rose  over  fifty  per  cent, 
while  wheat  rose  less  than  ten  per  cent.  Therefore, 
although  during  the  greater  part  of  this  period  wages 
were  nominally  fixed  by  authority,  while  prices  were 
left  free  to  move  in  accordance  with  economic  influ- 

*  For  more  full  information  upon  this  point  we  refer  the  reader  to 
Arthur  Young's  "Jou''"^y  Through  England"  (1767),  Eden's  "State 
of  the  Poor,"  Tooke's  "  History  of  Prices,"  Rogers's  "  History  of 
Prices,"  Porter's  "  Progress  of  the  Nation,"  Wade's  "  History  of  the 
Working  Classes,"  and  Levi's  "  Wages  and  Earnings." 


158  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS, 

ences,  the  united  power  of  wealth  and  law  could  not 
prevent  them  from  moving  in  the  same  direction. 

It  is  true  that  during  this  period  the  whole  influence 
of  the  authorities  was  used  to  keep  wages  at  the 
minimum,  and  often  with  considerable  success  ;  but  it 
is  also  true  that  in  proportion  as  the  government  suc- 
ceeded in  preventing  wages  from  keeping  pace  with 
prices  or  the  cost  of  living,  it  was  compelled  to  call 
for  and  finally  by  law  enforce  public  contributions,  as 
under  the  poor  law  and  the  allowance  system,  to  make 
up  the  deficiency.  By  this  means,  which  was  the  in- 
evitable result  of  arbitrary  interference  with  the  nat- 
ural movement  of  wages,  the  laborer's  income,  as 
before  stated,  was  eked  out  from  the  public  funds, 
according  to  the  size  of  his  family  and  the  price  of 
provisions.* 

Thus,  for  the  same  reason  that  the  pains  and  pen- 
alties of  Edward  III.  and  Richard  II.  were  unable 
to  prevent  real  wages  from  moving  in  the  direction  of 
the  improved  standard  of  living  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, those  of  the  Tudors  and  Stuarts  and  Brunswicks 
were  unable  to  prevent  nominal  wages  from  moving  in 
the  same  direction  as  prices  in  the  sixteenth,  seven- 
teenth, and  eighteenth  centuries.  When  we  reach  the 
nineteenth  century,  however,  we  find  the  other  set  of 
causes  to  which  we  have  so  often  referred  as  affect- 
ing real  wages  again  beginning  to  operate.  From 
causes  fully  set  forth  in  another  chapter,f  the  spinning- 
jenny  and  the  power-loom  came  into  existence,  which 

*  A  full  table  of  the  scale  bj'  which  the  wages  were  to  be  supple- 
mented by  parish  allowance,  according  to  the  price  of  bread  and  the 
number  of  the  family,  will  be  found  on  page  577  of  Vol.  I.  of  Eden's 
"  State  of  the  Poor." 

f  This  chapter  is  unavoidably  deferred  to  the  next  volume. 


WHY  REAL    WAGES  AGAIAT  ROSE.  159 

made  congregated  industry  and  the  factory  system  of 
production  possible.  The  towns  thus  again  became 
manufacturing  and  commercial  centres,  through  which 
industrial  and,  consequently,  social  contact  again  be- 
came an  active  force  among  the  masses,  at  least  among 
those  engaged  in  the  manufacturing  and  mechanical 
industries. 

From  these  changed  conditions  new  desires  and 
wants  soon  arose,  and  new  habits  began  to  be  formed, 
the  influence  of  which,  though  unconsciously  exercised, 
soon  became  visible  in  a  higher  standard  of  living  and, 
consequently,  a  general  and  gradual  but  persistent  and 
continuous  rise  in  real  wages.  This  fact  was  clearly 
observed  by  Tooke,  who,  speaking  of  the  rise  of  wages 
at  the  commencement  of  the  present  century,  says  : 
**  The  wages  of  agricultural  laborers  and  artisans  had 
been  doubled,  or  nearly  so.  Salaries  from  the  lowest 
clerk  up  to  the  highest  functionaries,  as  well  as  profes- 
sional fees,  had  been  considerably  raised  on  t)\Q  plea  of 
greatly  increased  expenses  of  living,  not  only  by  the 
increased  price  of  necessaries,  but  by  a  higher  scale  of 
general  expenditure  or  style  of  living  incidental  to  the 
progress  of  wealth  and  civilization, ' '  "^ 

From  this  time  on,  quantity  instead  of  price  again 
became  the  controlling  element  in  the  cost  of  living ; 
and,  consequently,  we  find  wages  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  as  in  the  fourteenth,  constantly  moving  toward 
the  standard  of  living  rather  than  the  price  of  commod- 
ities, which  is  the  only  movement  of  wages  that  can 
ever  increase  the  wealth  of  the  laborer  and  really  pro- 
mote human  progress.  This  also  explains  why,  during 
the  present  century,  wages  have  risen  and  prices  fallen 

*  "  History  of  Prices,"  Vol.  I.,  pp.  329,  330. 


i6o  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

at  the  same  time,  instead  of  the  former  constantly- 
following  the  latter,  as  in  the  sixteenth,  seventeenth, 
and  eighteenth  centuries. 

This,  I  repeat,  is  because  during  the  former  period 
the  wants,  habits,  and  standard  of  living,  and,  conse- 
quently, real  wages  were  practically  stationary  ;  and, 
therefore,  all  variation  in  wages  was  merely  nominal, 
rising  and  falling  only  as  the  prices  of  the  commodities 
used  by  the  laborer  rose  and  fell,  the  quantity  of 
wealth  he  received  remaining  essentially  the  same  ; 
while  in  the  present  century  the  wants  and  habits  of 
the  laboring  classes  have  greatly  improved,  and  when, 
through  the  use  of  machinery,  the  price  of  com- 
modities fell,  instead  of  wages  falling  in  the  same  ratio, 
as  formerly,  the  new  wants,  as  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, absorbed  the  difference,  thereby  raising  the 
standard  of  living  and  increasing  real  wages. 

The  operation  of  this  principle  is  clearly  seen  in  the 
striking  difference  between  the  movement  of  the  wages 
of  the  agricultural  laborers  and  that  of  those  of  the 
artisans  and  others  engaged  in  manufacturing  indus- 
tries generally.     It  will  be  remembered  that  during  the 
three  centuries  in  which  the  standard  of  living  was 
stationary,  the  wages  of  the  artisans  and  laborers  in 
husbandry  always  rose  and  fell  together,  and  that,  too, 
in  a  similar  if  not  in  the  same  ratio.     But  during  the 
present  century  the  wages  of  the  agricultural  laborers 
\  have  made  very  little  progress,    while   those  in  the 
limanufacturing  industries  have  risen,   in  most  cases, 
jbver  a  hundred  per  cent.*     Nor  is  the  reason  for  this 

*  See  Levi's  "  Earnings  and  Wages  ;"  Porter's  "  Progress  of  the 
Nation  ;"  Inaugural  Address  of  the  President  of  the  London  Statistical 
Society,  1883  ;  Report  of  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  Massachusetts, 
1884-85. 


AGRICULTURAL  WAGES  DID  NOT  RISE.         i6i 

very  difficult  to  understand.  It  is  because  the  social 
influences  which  develop  the  wants  and  raise  the 
standard  of  living  among  the  laborers  in  the  manu- 
facturing and  commercial  centres  have  not  operated 
upon  the  agricultural  laborers,  and,  consequently,  their 
wages  have  done  little  more  than  follow  the  movement 
of  prices.* 

*  It  is  notorious,  however,  tiiat  agricultural  wages  are  always 
higher  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  manufacturing  centres.  Rogers 
has  observed  this  fact,  and  says  :  "The  wages  paid  to  agricultural 
laborers  in  the  manufacturing  districts  of  England  are  far  in  excess 
of  those  customary  iu  purely  rural  parts." — '"''Work  and  Wages^''' 
p.  172. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

UNIVERSALITY  OF  THE  LAW   OF   WAGES. 

Section  I.  —  Wages   and  Cost   of  Living  in  Different 
Countries  and  htdustries. 

The  doctrine  that  wages  are  ultimately  governed 
by  the  cost  of  living  is  susceptible  of  universal  appli- 
cation. It  furnishes  as  complete  an  explanation  of 
the  variation  in  wages  in  different  countries,  locali- 
ties, and  industries  as  we  have  seen  it  does  of  the 
different  periods  in  the  same  country.  The  cost  of 
living  is  higher  in  large  cities  than  in  small  towns  for 
two  reasons  :  first,  because  the  price  of  a  few  things, 
such  as  house  rent,  is  higher  in  the  cities  than  in  the 
country,  and,  second,  because  a  larger  number  of  ex- 
penditures enter  into  the  daily  economy  of  the  laborers 
in  the  cities  than  in  that  of  those  in  the  country.  To 
the  extent  that  this  is  due  to  the  former  cause  it  affects 
only  nominal  wages,  and  to  the  extent  that  it  arises 
from  the  latter  influence  it  affects  real  wages.  But  by 
whatever  cause  this  is  produced,  the  fact  is  universal  ; 
and  the  fact  that  wages  in  similar  industries  are  higher 
in  large  cities  than  in  the  country  is,  and  ever  has 
been,  equally  universal.  And  for  the  same  reason  we 
find  wages  the  world  over  are  invariably  lower  in  agri- 
cultural than  in  manufacturing  industries.  Even  in 
India,  Buchanan  found  the  wages  of  the  Sudras  much 
higher  in  the  cities  and  immediate  vicinity  than  in  the 


WAGES  IN  LARGE  AND   SMALL   CITIES.  163 

country.*  Accordingly,  wages  are  always  higher  in 
London  than  in  Manchester,  Birmingham,  Leeds,  or 
Edinburgh,  and  higher  in  these  places  than  in  the 
rural  towns. 

In  the  thirteenth  century,  when  the  wages  system 
first  began  to  dawn  in  England,  Rogers  tells  us  f  **  the 
wages  of  agricultural  labor  were  higher  in  the  eastern 
counties  and  the  neighborhood  of  London  than  in  the 
rest  of  England."  And  he  adds  :  :j;  In  London  "  the 
wages  were  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  per  cent  over 
the  rates  paid  in  other  places."  When  considering 
"  the  present  situation,"  he  says  :§  **  London  wages 
were  about  twenty-five  per  cent  more  than  country 
wages  of  the  same  kind."  Adam  Smith  observed  the 
same  fact,  which  was  evidently  as  marked  in  his  day 
as  it  is  at  the  present  time,  for  he  says  :  ||  "  The  wages 
of  labor  in  a  great  town  and  its  neighborhood  are  fre- 
quently a  fourth  or  a  fifth  part,  twenty  or  five  and 
twenty  per  cent,  higher  than  at  a  few  miles  distance. 
Eighteenpence  a  day  may  be  reckoned  the  common 
price  of  labor  in  London  and  its  neighborhood.  At  a 
few  miles  distant  it  falls  to  fourteen  and  fifteenpence. 
Tenpence  may  be  reckoned  its  price  in  Edinburgh  and 
its  neighborhood  ;  at  a  few  miles  distant  it  falls  to 
eightpence. " 

The  same  is  true  of  this  and  all  other  countries 
where  wage  conditions  prevail.  The  fact  that  wages 
in  the  various  trades  in  New  York  City  are  from 
twenty-five  to  seventy-five  cents  a  day  more  than  in 

*  Buchanan's  "  Journey  Through  the  Countries  of  Mysore,  Canara, 
and  Malabar,"  pp.  124,  125. 
t  "  Work  and  Wages,"  p.  171. 

X  Ibid.,  p.  327.  §  Ibid.,  pp.  180,  536. 

I  "  Wealth  of  Nations,"  Book  I.,  ch.  8,  pp.  57,  58. 


1 64  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

the  small  cities  and  towns  in  that  and  other  States,  is 
explainable  only  on  the  same  principle. 

In  Fall  River,  Mass.,  for  example,  the  wages  of 
carpenters,  painters,  masons,  and  bricklayers  are  (1886) 
from  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  to  three  dollars  a  day ; 
while  in  New  York  City  they  are  from  three  dollars 
and  fifty  cents  to  four  dollars  and  fifty  cents.  Com- 
mon laborers  in  the  former  city  receive  from  one  dollar 
and  twenty-five  cents  to  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents  a  day, 
while  those  in  New  York  receive  from  one  dollar  and 
seventy-five  cents  to  two  dollars,  and  those  employed 
by  the  city  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents.  So  universally 
is  this  true  that  it  is  recognized  by  both  employer  and 
employed.  Even  trades  unions' schedules  and  masters' 
prices,  both  in  Europe  and  this  country,  are  based 
upon  it.  Not  that  they  agree  upon  any  theory  of 
wages,  but  because  they  are  both  compelled  to  observe 
the  fact.  This  is  equally  true  of  the  same  industries 
in  different  countries.  Without  regard  to  climate, 
political  institutions,  or  social  conditions,  wherever 
the  cost  of  living  is  low,  whether  from  the  cheapness 
of  things  or  the  fewness  of  the  wants,  small  wages  are 
invariably  paid,  and  vice  versa. 

The  testimony  of  Sir  Thomas  Brassey  upon  this 
point  is  ample  and  conclusive  ;  and  his  evidence  is 
especially  important  because  of  his  exceptional  oppor- 
tunities for  obtaining  the  facts  in  relation  to  wages  and 
cost  of  living  in  so  many  different  countries,  with  the 
data  of  his  father's  experience,  who  employed  a  larger 
number  and  greater  variety  of  laborers  in  more  differ- 
ent countries  than  any  other  man.  He  says  i"^  "The 
minimum  is  determined  by  the  cost  of  living,  accord- 

*  Brassey's  '*  Work  and  Wages,"  pp.  94,  95. 


WAGES  IN  DIFFERENT  COUNTRIES,  165 

ing  to  the  standard  adopted  by  the  people.  ...  As 
we  recede  from  the  more  civilized  countries  of  Europe 
the  standard  of  comfort  is  reduced,  and  the  laborer  is 
content  to  receive  lower  wages.  In  Eastern  Europe," 
he  continues,"^  "  the  standard  of  living  is  very  low, 
and  the  earnings  of  the  laboring  people  are  scanty  in 
proportion.  The  Galicians  live  principally  upon  black 
bread,  schnapps — a  spirit  distilled  from  Indian  corn — 
and  potatoes.  The  inhabitants  of  Bukovina  and 
Moldavia  live  on  Indian  corn  and  schnapps,  at  a  cost 
of  from  four  to  fivepence  a  day.  Ninepence  may  be 
considered  the  ordinary  wages." 

In  Russia  the  food,  which,  he  says,  consists  of 
**  black  bread  and  water,"  **  costs  from  five  to  six 
shillings  a  month,"  and  wages  are  from  four  to  six- 
pence aday."f  In  Germany  day  wages  are  from  one 
shilling  and  twopence  to  one  shilling  and  ninepence, 
and  board  and  lodgings  tenpence  a  day.:]:  In  Hungary 
wages  are  one  shilling  and  threepence  a  day,  the  cost 
of  living  for  an  average  family  being  about  one  shilling 
a  day.§ 

McCulloch,  who  was  a  strong  wages-fund  advocate, 
admits  that  the  difference  in  the  wages  in  **  England, 
Ireland,  China,  and  Hindustan  is  the  result  of  the 
difference  in  the  standard  of  living  in  those  countries." 


*  Bfassey's  "  Work  and  Wages,"  p.  89. 

f  Ibid.,  pp.  61,  103.  X  Ibid.,  pp.  15,  16. 

§  See  pp.  44-105.  In  a  later  edition  Mr.  Brassey  has  extended  his 
observations  on  this  subject,  in  which  he  says  (pp.  160,  161)  :  "  The 
cost  of  labor  rose  thirty  per  cent  in  the  last  ten  years  because  of  a 
rise  in  the  cost  of  living  ;"  and  on  pp.  164,  165  he  adds  :  "  The  wages 
in  France  had  grown  with  the  augmented  cost  of  living."  "  The 
enhanced  value  of  provisions  had  produced  the  same  influence  on 
the  price  of  labor  in  Belgium  as  in  France." 


1 66  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

He  says  :*  "In  England  (1824),  for  example,  the 
laborers  principally  subsist  on  wheaten  bread  and  beef, 
in  Ireland  on  potatoes,  and  in  China  and  Hindustan 
on  rice.  ...  In  Ireland  the  peasantry  live  in  miser- 
able mud-cabins,  without  either  a  window  or  a  chim- 
ney ;  while  in  England  the  cottages  of  the  peasantry 
have  all  glass  windows  and  chimneys,  are  well  fur- 
nished, and  are  as  much  distinguished  for  their  neat- 
ness, cleanliness,  and  comfort  as  those  of  the  Irish  for 
their  filth  and  misery.  In  consequence  of  these  differ- 
ent habits,  there  is  an  extreme  difference,  not  in  the 
rate  of  necessary  wages  merely,  but  in  their  actual  or 
market  rate  in  these  countries  ;  so  much  so,  that  while 
the  average  market  price  of  a  day's  labor  in  England 
may  be  taken  at  from  twentypence  to  two  shillings,  it 
cannot  be  taken  at  more  than  fivepence  in  Ireland  and 
threepence  in  Hindustan." 

The  wages  in  the  building  trades  in  London  f  aver- 
age about  seven  shillings  and  three  halfpence  (one 
dollar  and  seventy-one  cents)  a  day,  or  rather  less  than 
the  common  laborer,  and  more  than  a  dollar  a  day  less 
than  those  employed  in  similar  industries  in  New 
York  City. 

If  we  examine  the  rate  of  wages  paid  in  the  differ- 
ent industries  in  the  same  localities,  we  shall  find  that 
the  rate  of  wages  paid  to  masons  and  bricklayers  is 
generally  higher  than  that  paid  to  carpenters  and 
painters,  and  that  of  carpenters  and  painters  is  con- 
siderably above  that  of  the  factory  operatives.  For 
example,   in   Fall  River,   Mass.,  the  "  spindle  city  of 

*  "  Principles  of  Political  Economy,"  p.  181. 

\  Thorold  Rogers's  '*  Work  and  Wages,"  p.  539.  See  also  George 
Howell's  "  Capital  and  Labor  ;"  Leone  Levi's  "  Wages  and  Earnings." 


WAGES  IN  DIFFERENT  INDUSTRIES.  167 

America,"  in  1885  the  wages  of  bricklayers  and  ma- 
sons— I  am  quoting  union  prices — were  from  three 
dollars  to  three  dollars  and  fifty  cents  per  day,  and 
those  of  the  painters  and  carpenters  from  two  dollars 
to  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  per  day,  while  those  of 
factory  operatives  were  only  about  one  dollar  and  forty 
cents. 

Why,  it  may  be  asked,  if  wages  are  governed  by  the 
cost  of  living,  is  the  rate  paid  to  masons  and  brick- 
layers higher  than  that  of  carpenters  and  painters  in 
the  same  town,  since,  as  a  class,  their  standard,  and, 
consequently,  their  cost  of  living,  is  practically  the 
same.  It  is  true  that  the  general  standard  of  living  of 
the  bricklayer  and  mason  in  the  same  locality  is  vir- 
tually the  same  as  that  of  the  carpenter  and  painter, 
and  so  are  their  aggregate  wages.  The  former  get  a 
slightly  higher  rate  of  wages  per  day,  but  they  are 
more  exposed  to  the  weather,  and  work  fewer  days  in 
the  year.  Consequently,  while  their  rate  per  day  is  \ 
higher,  their  actual  income  throughout  the  year  is 
about  the  same. 


Section  II. —  The  Income  of  the  Family  not  Increased 
by  the  Wages  of  the  Wife  and  Children. 

Although  the  regularity  or  Irregularity  of  employ- 
ment in  various  occupations  will  explain  the  difference 
in  the  ratio  of  wages  in  the  building  trades,  this  fact, 
it  may  be  said,  is  inadequate  to  explain  the  extra- 
ordinary difference  between  the  rate  of  wages  in  the 
building  trades  and  that  paid  to  the  factory  opera- 
tives. The  employment  of  the  latter  is  more  constant 
than  that  of  those  in  any  branch  of  the  building  trade. 


1 68  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

It  is  also  true  that  in  the  same  locality  the  general 
standard  of  living  of  the  operative  is  lower  than  that  of 
the  former.  But  it  is  no  less  obvious  that  both  of  these 
causes  are  insufficient  to  explain  the  striking  difference 
in  their  wages.  It  should  be  remembered,  as  we  have 
repeatedly  stated,  that  when  comparing  the  wages  and 
cost  of  living,  we  do  not  mean  merely  the  rate  of 
wages,  when  they  work^  and  the  price  of  board  for  a 
single  person,  but  the  average  wages  and  cost  of  living 
of  the  average  family  in  any  given  class  or  industry  ; 
because  if  our  doctrine  is  sound,  and  the  income  of 
the  wage-receiving  class  is  governed  by  their  ex- 
penditures, the  cost  of  living  being  given,  the  rate 
of  wages  will  fall  in  proportion  as  the  number  of 
workers  increases ;  or,  to  be  more  strictly  correct,  as 
the  amount  earned  by  other  members  of  the  family 
increases.  Consequently,  other  things  being  the  same, 
in  those  industries  where  the  wife  and  children  work 
the  rate  of  wages  for  the  man  will  be  the  lowest. 

**  The  habits  of  the  people,"  says  Mill*  "(as  has 
already  been  so  often  remarked),  everywhere  require 
some  particular  scale  of  living,  and  no  more,  as  the  con- 
dition without  which  they  will  not  bring  up  a  family. 
Whether  the  income  which  maintains  them  in  this 
condition  comes  from  one  source  or  from  two  makes 
no  difference  ;  if  there  is  a  second  source  of  income 
they  require  less  from  the  first.  .  .  .  For  the  same 
reason  it  is  found  that,  cceter  is  paribus,  those  trades  are 
generally  the  worst  paid  in  which  the  wife  and  children 
of  the  artisan  aid  in  the  work.     The  income  which  the 


*  "  Principles  of  Political  Economy,"  Book  II.,  ch.  xlv.,  p.  488. 
See  also  Report  of  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  1876, 
p.  71. 


CHILD  LABOR  REDUCES  MEN'S  WAGES.         169 

habits  of  the  class  demand,  and  down  to  which  they 
are  almost  sure  to  multiply,  is  made  up,  in  those 
trades,  by  the  earnings  of  the  whole  family,  while  in 
others  the  same  income  must  be  obtained  by  the  labor 
of  the  man  alone."  It  is  this  fact  which  explains  the 
striking  difference  in  the  rate  of  wages  paid  to  factory 
operatives  and  that  of  those  employed  in  the  building 
trades.  Among  factory  operatives,  all  branches  taken 
together,  the  wives  and  children  who  contribute  to 
the  support  of  the  family  are,  on  an  average,  as  one 
and  a  quarter  to  each  family,  while  among  those  em- 
ployed in  the  building  trades  the  average  of  wives  and 
children  who  work  is  only  one  to  every  four  families. 
Hence,  in  the  building  trades  the  wages  of  the  man 
supply  about  ninety-seven  and  one  half  per  cent  of 
the  total  cost  of  the  family's  living,  while  among  the 
factory  operatives  the  wages  of  the  man  only  supply 
sixty-six  per  cent,  or  two  thirds,  of  the  cost  of  the 
family's  living,  because  the  other  one  third  is  furnished 
by  the  labor  of  the  wife  or  children.  Nor  is  this 
because  the  cost  of  living  in  the  factory  operative's 
family  is  greater  than  that  of  the  laborer  in  the  build- 
ing trades,  for  while  the  average  family  in  the  build- 
ing trade  contains  four  and  one  half  persons,  that  of 
the  factory  operative  contains  five  and  seven  eighths 
persons.  The  total  cost  of  living  in  the  former  is 
about  fifty  dollars  a  year  more  than  in  the  latter,  and 
the  wages  of  the  man  in  the  former  are  nearly  two 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  year  more  than  those  of 
the  latter. 

Upon  this  point  also  ample  data  have  been  collected 
in  Massachusetts  for  the  most  conclusive  generaliza- 
tions.    The  sixth  (1875)  report  of  the  Labor  Bureau 

of  that  State  furnishes  a  full  individual  statement  of 
9 


I70  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

the  wages,  cost  of  living,  etc.,  of  three  hundred  and 
ninety-three  families  employed  in  the  different  indus- 
tries. Of  this  number  fifty-seven  represent  the  build- 
ing trades,  including  bricklayers,  carpenters,  masons, 
painters,  plasterers,  ship-carpenters,  and  stair-builders  ; 
thirty-nine  are  taken  from  the  boot,  shoe,  and  leather 
trades,  which  include  boot  and  shoemakers,  tanners, 
shoe-chandlers,  cutters,  lasters,  trimmers,  curriers,  and 
morocco-dressers  ;  sixty-one  are  taken  from  the  metal- 
workers, and  include  blacksmiths,  boilermakers,  cut- 
lers, engine-builders,  iron-moulders,  iron-roller  makers, 
machinists,  nailmakers,  jewellers,  and  watchmakers  ; 
seventeen  are  taken  from  the  laborers  in  cutlery 
and  iron  works,  machine  and  boiler  shops,  roller- 
mills,  etc. ;  thirty-five  represent  factory  operatives,  and 
under  this  head  are  included  pressers,  section  hands, 
spinners,  and  weavers  ;  thirty-eight  represent  the 
other  operatives  employed  in  the  factories,  under  the 
head  of  mill  laborers  ;  ninety-eight  are  taken  from  the 
various  outdoor  employments,  such  as  laborers  for 
builders,  street  laborers,  wharf  laborers,  fishermen, 
etc.  ;  ten  represent  quarrymen  and  teamsters  ;  twenty- 
four  are  taken  from  shop  trades,  such  as  cabinetmak- 
ers, carriage-builders,  hatters,  cigarmakers,  mechanics, 
stone-cutters,  and  whipmakers,  and  ten  from  the  la- 
borers in  these  shop  trades. 

The  statement  of  each  of  these  families  gives  the 
amount  the  father  earns,  the  whole  number  of  the 
family,  the  number  who  work,  the  amount  earned  by 
each,  the  total  amount  earned  by  all,  how  they  live, 
and  what  it  costs.  The  average  yearly  earnings  of  the 
father,  the  wife  and  children,  and  the  cost  of  living  in 
those  industries  are  as  follows  ; 


FAMILY  SCHEDULES  IN  THE  VARIOUS  TRADES.  171 


Trades. 


Shop  trades 

Metal-workers  . . 
Building  trades.. 

Teamsters 

Shoe       and      Leather 

trade 

Metal-workers'  labor 

ers 

Mill  operatives 

Mill  laborers 

Shop  laborers 

Out-door  laborers 


a 

a 

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al 

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■g 

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P 

c2. 

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H 

$752.36 

^y^ 

X 

$69.04 

$821.40 

739.30 

4K 

y^, 

90.51 

829.81 

721.32 

4K2 

% 

7300 

794.32 

630.02 

^y^ 

yz 

105.00 

735.02 

540.00 

49i 

I 

209.00 

749.00 

458.09 

5/2 

^% 

256.08 

714.17 

572.10 

5 

I 

250.35 

822.45 

386.04 

6M 

1^3 

284.08 

670.12 

433-06 

ItV 

232.02 

665.08 

424.12 

tVz 

I^ 

257.93 

682.05 

$772.21 
723.00 

740.03 
729.04 

693.13 

697.92 
755.04 
638.99 
642.08 
650.81 


From  these  facts,  which  are  ample  and  reliaWe, 
three  things  are  manifest  :  (i)  That  the  aggregate 
earnings  of  the  average  family  in  any  given  class  of 
wage-receivers  is  always  proportioned  to  the  cost  of 
living  in  the  average  family  in  that  class.  (2)  That  in 
proportion  as  the  wife  and  children  contribute  to  the 
support  of  the  family  the  wages  of  tlie  father  are  re- 
duced. (3)  That  the  standard  of  living  and,  conse- 
quently, the  total  income  of  the  family  is  the  lowest 
where  the  wife  and  children  contribute  the  most 
toward  its  support.* 

Paradoxical  as  the  last  statement  may  at  first  appear, 
it  is  perfectly  natural — indeed,  it  could  not  be  other- 
wise ;  because  where   the  mother  and  children  go  to 


*  "  Thus  it  is  seen  that  in  neither  of  the  cases  where  the  man  Js 
assisted  by  his  wife  or  children  does  he  earn  as  much  as  other  laborers. 
Also,  that  in  the  case  where  he  is  assisted  by  both  wife  and  children 
he  earns  the  \&aiSi*'— Report  on  the  Statistics  of  Labor^  1876,  p.  71. 


172  .     WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

the  mill  it  is  impossible  for  the  wants,  which  result 
from  the  refining  influences  of  social  life,  to  be  de- 
veloped to  the  same  extent  as  where  the  mother  pre- 
sides at  the  home  and  the  children  attend  school. 
Accordingly,  if  we  take  the  shoe  trades,  metal-workers, 
and  the  building  trades  together,  where  the  proportion 
of  children  that  work  is  only  as  one  to  every  three 
families,  the  average  earnings  of  the  father  come 
within  seven  dollars  and  forty-two  cents  a  year  of  the 
total  cost  of  the  family's  living  ;  whereas,  if  the  metal- 
workers* laborers,  mill  laborers,  shop  laborers,  and  out- 
door laborers  are  taken  together,  where  the  number  of 
children  that  work  are  as  one  and  one  quarter  to  each 
family,  the  average  earnings  of  the  father  are  two 
hundred  and  thirty-two  dollars  and  twelve  cents  a 
year  less  than  the  cost  of  the  family's  living.  This 
difference  is  still  greater  when  we  consider  the  fact 
that  the  average  total  cost  of  living  in  the  latter  class 
is  nearly  one  hundred  dollars  a  year  less  than  in  the 
former. 

The  same  is  true  of  women,  the  marked  difference 
between  their  wages  and  those  of  men  being  explained 
upon  the  same  principle.  It  may  be  urged  that  the 
cost  of  a  woman's  living,  other  things  being  the  same, 
is  as  great  as  that  of  a  man's.  If  the  cost  of  living 
was  measured  by  the  personal  expenses  of  the  single 
individual,  instead  of  by  that  of  the  family,  as  we 
have  explained,  this  would  be  to  some  extent  true  ; 
but  the  cost  of  living  of  the  workers  always  includes 
that  of  the  non-workers  also.  Hence,  in  proportion 
as  the  non-workers  are  reduced  are  the  demands  upon 
the  earnings  of  the  workers  lessened  and  their  wages 
accordingly  reduced.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the 
wages  of  the  father,  as  shown  above,  are  reduced  in 


WOMEN'S  WAGES,    WHY  LESS  THAN  MEN'S.     173 

proportion  as  the  wife  and  children  contribute  to  the 
support  of  the  family. 

As  the  man  is  much  more  generally  the  head  and 
chief  earner  of  the  family,  a  much  larger  number  are 
dependent  upon  the  wages  of  the  average  man  than 
upon  those  of  the  average  woman.  Again,  although 
the  wants  of  the  average  woman  in  the  same  social 
environment,  for  amusements,  travel,  etc.,  are  equal 
to  those  of  the  average  man,  they  are  generally  fur- 
nished by  the  man,  as  father,  friend,  or  lover,  and 
therefore  really  constitute  an  item  in  the  normal  ex- 
penses of  the  man,  instead  of  those  of  the  woman.  It 
will  thus  be  seen  that,  other  things  being  the  same, 
the  cost  of  living  of  the  average  man  is  much  greater 
than  that  of  the  average  woman,  and  his  wages  are 
correspondingly  higher,  as  shown  in  following  tables.* 

Wages  and  Cost  of  Living  of  Males. 


Counties. 


Persons 
Dependent. 


Yearly  Wages. 


Cost  of 
Living. 


Barnstable. . , 

Berkshire 

Bristol 

Dukes 

Essex 

Franklin 

Hampden. . . 
Hampshire. . 
Middlesex  . . 
Nantucket. . . 
Norfolk.  ... 
Plymouth. , . 

Suffolk 

Worcester. . . 
For  the  State 


2.86 
3-39 
313 
3-6i 
2.96 
2.99 

3-03 
3- 10 

311 
2,00 
3.18 
306 
3-03 
304 
3.08 


$388.86 
431.00 
456.05 
359-28 
461.65 
438.19 
563-48 
408.01 
496.58 
327-73 
447.18 

403-30 
576.19 
490.78 
482.72 


$387.89 
430.38 
479-85 
398.24 

486.53 
426.51 

569.59' 

413.77 

503.69 

532.50 

479-27 

423-85 

559-87 

485.45 

488.96 


*  Seventh  Annual  Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics 
of  Labor  for  1876,  pp.  66-69.  These  tables  are  based  upon  71,339 
schedules. 


174  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

Wages  and  Cost  of  Living  of  Females. 


Counties. 


Persons 
Dependent. 


Yearly  Wages. 


Cost  of 
Living. 


Barnstable. . . 
Berkshire  . . . 

Bristol 

Dukes 

Essex 

Franklin  . . . . 
Hampden  . . . 
Hampshire. . 
Middlesex. . . 
Nantucket.. . 

Norfolk 

Plymouth  . . . 

Suffolk 

Worcester. . . 
For  the  State 


1. 71 
2.27 
1.93 
1.50 
1.95 
1.74 
1. 71 
1.56 
1.60 
1. 00 
1. 81 
2.09 
1. 81 
1.65 
1.78 


$133.44 
179.40 
213.02 
149.56 
212.22 

178.74 
219.59 
192.13 
205.24 
88.67 
148.54 
182.14 
197.87 
191.07 
198.76 


$130  40 
180.82 
185.98 

136.50 
203.10 
152.81 
192.84 
169.61 
178.82 
81.25 
190.60 
185.39 
184.55 
175.77 
182.86 


It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  number  of  persons  sus- 
tained by  the  earnings  of  the  average  woman  through- 
out the  State  is  only  one  and  seventy-eight  hundredths, 
while  that  of  those  dependent  upon  the  earnings  of 
the  average  man  is  three  and  eight  hundredths. 
Hence  the  yearly  wages  of  the  woman  are  only  one 
hundred  and  ninety-eight  dollars  and  seventy-six  cents, 
and  the  cost  of  her  living  is  one  hundred  and  eighty- 
two  dollars  and  eighty- six  cents  ;  while  the  wages  of 
the  average  man  are  four  hundred  and  eighty-two 
dollars  and  seventy-two  cents,  and  the  cost  of  his 
living  is  four  hundred  and  eighty-eight  dollars  and 
ninety-six  cents. 

Although  this  principle  has  never  been  understood 
by  economists  and  statesmen,  it  has  long  been  un- 
consciously acted  upon  by  practical  men.  It  is  upon 
this  principle  that  employers  import  low-paid  laborers 
from  distant  countries.  The  English  manufacturers 
imported   agricultural   laborers   into   Lancashire,   and 


DR.   ENGEVS  LAW  OF  EXPENDITURES,         175 

American  capitalists  import  Asiatic  and  European  la- 
borers to  this  country  for  no  other  reason  than  that  they 
could  live  upon  less  and  therefore  work  for  lower  wages 
than  could  the  Lancashire  and  American  laborers. 


Section  III.  —  The  Theory  Further  Sustained  by  Dr, 
EngeV s  Law  of  Expenditures. 

Moreover,  the  doctrine  here  laid  down  is  not  only 
sustained  by  all  industrial  history,  but  it  is  also  in  full 
accord  with  the  known  principles  of  consumption  as 
estabhshed  by  "  Engel's  law"  of  expenditure.  Dr. 
Engel,  the  famous  Prussian  statistician,  by  exhaustive 
investigations  has  discovered  that  the  incomes  of  the 
wages  and  salaried  classes  *  are,  on  an  average,  divided 
in  the  various  channels  of  expenditure  as  follows  : 
(i)  That  the  greater  the  income  the  smaller  the  rela- 
tive percentage  of  outlay  for  subsistence  ;  (2)  that 
the  percentage  of  outlay  for  clothes,  rent,  fuel,  light, 
etc.,  is  approximately  the  same,  whatever  the  income  ; 
and  (3)  that  as  the  income  increases  in  amount  the 
percentage  of  outlay  for  sundries — i.e.^  education,  lit- 
erature, art,  travel,  amusement,  etc. — increases,  f 

*  All  who  receive  stipulated  incomes  for  service  are  properly 
wage-receivers.     See  definition  of  wages,  pp.  73,  74. 

f  These  conclusions  have  been  fully  tested  by  extensive  investiga- 
tions in  Prussia,  England,  and  America,  and  especially  in  Massachu- 
setts, where  more  complete  data  has  been  collected  than  in  any  other 
place  in  the  world.  Colonel  Wright,  after  comparing  the  averages 
for  Prussia,  England,  Illinois,  and  Massachusetts,  says  :  "  The  re- 
markable harmony  in  the  items  of  expenditure  shown  by  a  percentage 
of  total  expenditure  must  establish  the  soundness  of  the  economic 
law  propounded  by  Dr.  Engel.  The  column  of  averages  should, 
therefore,  be  taken  as  the  very  best  results  of  that  law,  sustained  by 
a  wide  range  of  data  from  three  great  countries.*' — Report  of  Mas- 
sachusetts Labor  Bureau,  1885,  p.  153. 


176 


WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 


It  will  be  seen  from  the  above  that  that  portion  of 
the  general  consumption  which  goes  to  satisfy  the 
physical  necessities  is  susceptible  of  very  little  in- 
crease ;  that  the  portion  which  goes  for  clothes,  rent, 
and  home  conditions  generally,  is  capable  of  a  much 
larger  increase,  while  the  possibility  of  enlarging- the 
demand  for  that  portion  which  goes  to  satisfy  the  in- 
tellectual, moral,  and  social  wants  of  man  is  practically 
unlimited.  This  being  true,  it  follows  :  (i)  That  in 
proportion  as  the  laborer's  wants  are  limited  to  his 
physical  necessities  will  his  wages  be  low  and  prac- 
tically stationary,  as  in  Asia,  Africa,  and  Eastern 
Europe.  (2)  That  only  in  proportion  as  his  domestic, 
social,  and  aesthetic  wants  are  increased — i.e.^  the 
standard  of  living  is  elevated — will  real  wages  rise. 

The  truth  of  this  principle  will  be  more  clearly  seen 
by  comparing  the  weekly  wages  and  the  number  of 
days'  labor  devoted  to  procuring  food  and  those  given 
to  the  gratification  of  the  higher  social  wants  in  the 
different  countries,  as  shown  in  the   following  table  :* 


Countries. 


United  States 
Great  Britain 

France 

Germany. . . . , 

Italy 

Belgium 

Russia 

Austria 

Spain   ...... 

Scandinavia  . 


Weekly 
Wages. 

Food. 

Clothes, 
Rent,   and 
Sundries. 

Taxes. 

$10.80 

"3 

154 

33 

7-44 

114 

154 

32 

504 

120 

135 

45 

3.84 

155 

107 

38 

3.60 

162 

78 

60 

4.80 

133 

134 

33 

3.60 

180 

83 

37 

3.84 

159 

107 

34 

3-84 

164 

80 

56 

3.60 

147 

123 

30 

Total 
Working 
Days  in 
the  Year. 


300 
300 
300 
300 
300 
300 
300 
300 
300 
300 


*  This  table  is  all  taken  from  Mulhall's  "  History  of  Prices," 
1885,  except  the  wages  for  the  United  States,  which  are  taken  from 
the  Massachusetts  Labor  Bureau  Report  for  1884. 


WANTS  AND  WAGES  IN  DIFFERENT  COUNTRIES.  177 

From  this  table  it  will  be  seen  that  in  those  coun- 
tries where  the  largest  number  of  days'  labor  a  year 
is  devoted  to  obtaining  food,  and  the  higher  social 
wants  are  the  fewest,  wages  are  the  lowest,  and  where 
the  largest  number  of  days'  labor  is  given  to  supply 
the  higher  social  wants,  wages  are  the  highest.  Thus, 
e.g.y  the  laborer  in  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain 
gives  one  hundred  and  thirteen  and  one  hundred  and 
fourteen  days  a  year  respectively  to  the  procuring  of 
food,  as  compared  with  one  hundred  and  sixty-two  in 
Italy,  one  hundred  and  sixty-four  in  Spain,  and  one 
hundred  and  eighty  in  Russia  ;  and  for  the  gratification 
of  higher  social  wants  the  former  gives  one  hundred 
and  fifty-four  days'  labor  a  year  as  against  seventy- 
eight  in  Italy,  eighty  in  Spain,  and  eighty-three  in 
Russia.  Hence  we  find  the  wages  in  this  country  are 
ten  dollars  and  eighty  cents,  and  in  England  seven 
dollars  and  forty-four  cents  a  week,  as  against  three 
dollars  and  sixty  cents  in  Italy,  three  dollars  and 
eighty-four  cents  in  Spain,  and  three  dollars  and  sixty 
cents  in  Russia.  Or,  to  state  the  case  another  way, 
the  American  and  Englishman,  after  furnishing  food, 
clothing,  rent,  and  taxes — the  first  three  of  which  are 
superior  to  those  in  any  other  country — have  left  to 
supply  luxuries  and  to  gratify  aesthetic  wants  the  prod- 
ucts of  fourteen  days  a  year  more  than  the  Frenchman, 
twenty-three  more  than  the  Scandinavian,  forty-one 
more  than  the  Austrian,  forty-three  more  than  the 
German,  sixty-eight  more  than  the  Spaniard,  sixty- 
nine  more  than  the  Russian,  and  seventy-three  more 
than  the  Italian.  Accordingly,  we  see  the  wages  of 
the  American  are  double  the  European  and  more  than 
two  and  a  half  times  those  of  the  continental  average  ; 


178  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

and  those  of  England  are  nearly  double  the  average 
of  those  on  the  continent. 

Clearly,  therefore,  from  whatever  point  of  view  we 
consider  the  subject,  and  whatever  class  of  data  we 
examine,  the  evidence  is  ample  and  conclusive  that 
the  standard  of  living  is  the  economic  law  of  wages. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

WACxES   UNDER  PIECE-WORK. 

**  Piece-work  "  is  one  of  the  most  delusive  expres- 
sions in  the  whole  economic  vocabulary.  It  implies, 
and  the  idea  is  generally  accepted  among  both  la- 
borers and  employers,  that  wages  are  governed  by  a 
different  principle  under  "piece-work"  than  under 
*' day-work";  that  under  the  former  the  amount  the 
laborer  receives  is  determined  by  the  quantity  he  pro- 
duces, while  under  the  latter  it  is  governed  by  the 
number  of  days  he  works.  Although  this  has  the  ap- 
pearance of  truth,  it  contains  the  very  essence  of  error. 
**  Day-work"  and  **  piece-work'*  are  merely  different 
methods  for  buying  and  selling  given  quantities  of 
labor,  and  not  different  principles  for  regulating  the 
price  of  labor.  The  fact  that  wages  are  sometimes 
measured  by  the  number  of  hours,  and  sometimes  by 
the  amount  of  labor  performed  or  the  result  accom- 
plished, in  no  way  affects  the  principle  by  which  the 
daily  amount  received  is  finally  determined.  Eco- 
nomic prices  are  governed  by  the  same  law,  by  what- 
ever method  the  sale  takes  place. 

For  the  same  reason  that  potatoes  would  be  neither 
cheaper  nor  dearer  because  they  were  sold  by  the  peck 
or  by  the  pound  are  wages  ultimately  neither  higher 
nor  lower  because  work  is  done  by  the  day  or  by  the 
piece.  If  it  cost  three  cents  a  yard  to  manufacture  a 
certain  grade  of  cotton  cloth,  three  cents  a  yard  is  the 


l8o  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

lowest  at  which  that  cloth  can  be  continuously  sold. 
If  it  was  sold  by  the  pound  the  manufacturer  could 
not  afford  to  take  any  less,  nor  would  the  consumer 
consent  to  give  any  more  for  it  on  that  account.  If 
seven  yards  weigh  a  pound,  for  the  same  reason  that 
three  cents  is  the  lowest  that  can  be  taken  for  a  yard, 
twenty-one  cents  is  the  lowest  that  can  be  taken  for  a 
pound.  As  we  have  seen,  what  the  cost  of  production 
is  to  the  price  of  commodities,  the  cost  of  living  is  to 
the  price  of  labor.  Hence,  for  the  same  reason  that 
under  **  day-work"  the  daily  wages  are  governed  by 
the  daily  wants  (cost  of  living),  under  **  piece-work" 
the  price  per  "  piece"  is  governed  by  the  amount  pro- 
duced per  day.* 

The  "  piece-work"  price  always  moves  in  an  inverse 
ratio  with  the  quantity  produced.  Both  movements, 
however,  are  governed  by  the  same  law.  Therefore, 
the  fact  that  under  "  piece-work"  the  price  per  piece 
rises  and  falls  in  an  inverse  ratio  with  the  quantity  pro- 
duced, is  as  constant  and  universal  as  that  under  "  day- 
work"  the  price  per  day  rises  and  falls  in  a  direct  ratio 
with  the  cost  of  living.  It  is  by  the  operation  of  this 
principle  that  the  price  of  commodities  is  reduced  by 
improved  methods  of  production.  If  the  same  price 
per  yard  for  weaving,  spinning,  etc.,  was  paid  with 
the    power-loom   and    self-acting   mule   as   with   the 

*  So  generally  is  this  fact  recognized,  that  it  is  a  common  thing  to 
find  workmen  agreeing  among  themselves  not  to  do  more  than  a  cer- 
tain quantity  of  work,  because  repeated  experience  has  taught  them 
that  if  they  do  their  wages  will  soon  be  proportionately  reduced. 
That  is  why,  in  some  trades,  the  unions  forbid  the  men  to  produce 
more  than  a  given  quantity  per  day,  which  is  so  bitterly  denounced  as 
one  of  the  injurious  features  of  trades  unions.  This  practice  is 
adopted  the  most  when  new  kinds  of  work  or  new  machinery  are  intro- 
duced, in  order  to  keep  the  price  "  per  piece"  as  high  as  possible. 


DA  Y-  WA  GES  GO  VERN  PIECE-  WORK  PRICES.      1 8 1 

spinning-wheel  and  hand-loom,  woven  fabrics  would 
be  as  dear  to-day  as  they  were  a  hundred  years  ago. 

Although  this  law  has  never  been  understood,  it  has 
always  been  implicitly  obeyed.  Consequently,  where- 
ever  the  wages  system  prevails,  whether  the  price  of 
labor  is  fixed  by  royal  proclamation,  statute  law,  or 
competition,  we  find  the  rate  of  wages  tends  to  conform 
to  the  cost  of  living,  and  the  price  of  **  piece-work  " 
to  the  rate  of  wages  for  "  day-work."  This  fact  was 
clearly  recognized  by  Karl  Marx,  who  says  i"^  **  Piece 
wages  are  only  another  form  of  time  wages,  although 
it  appears  as  though  in  this  kind  of  wages  the  price  of 
labor  was  determined  by  the  quantity  of  product 
yielded.  In  fixing  the  piece  wages  the  following  ques- 
tions arise  :  What  is  the  duration  of  the  customary 
working  day  ?  What  quantity  of  goods  does  a  laborer 
of  the  average  industriousness  and  ability  make  in 
this  time  ?  What  are  the  daily  wages  under  these  cir- 
cumstances ?  Suppose  we  find  out  that,  on  an  average, 
thirty  pieces  of  one  commodity  can  be  produced  by  a 
laborer  in  a  working  day  of  twelve  hours,  for  which  he 
receives  a  day's  wages  of  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents, 
then  the  piece  wages  for  one  piece  of  this  commodity 
will  be  five  cents,  for  thirty  pieces  one  dollar  and  fifty 
cents.  Therefore  the  laborer  will  derive  no  benefit 
from  this  form  of  wages,  but  the  capitalist  knows  well 
how  to  take  advantage  of  it." 

Accordingly,  in  the  various  statutes  regulating 
wages  in  England  from  the  fourteenth  to  the  eigh- 
teenth centuries,  we  find  the  price  fixed  for  "piece- 
work" always  sustained  a  uniform  relation  to  that  of 
"day-work."     For  instance,   threshing  a   quarter  or 

*  Extracts  from  "  Capital,"  p.  26,  Weydemeyer's  translation. 


l82  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

mowing  an  acre  of  wheat  was  always  regarded  as  a 
day's  work.  Hence,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  when 
harvest  wages  were  threepence  a  day,  the  price  of 
mowing  an  acre  or  threshing  a  quarter  of  wheat  was 
threepence  also.  During  the  same  period,  when  ar- 
tisans* wages  were  threepence  halfpenny  a  day,*  the 
price  for  a  pair  of  sawyers  to  saw  a  hundred  planks — 
which  was  always  reckoned  a  day's  work  f — was  seven- 
pence.  And  when  *  May- wages"  rose  after  the  pesti- 
lence to  fivepence  a  day,  the  **  piece-work  "  price  of 
threshing  and  mowing  rose  to  fivepence  also, J  and 
that  of  sawing  one  hundred  planks  to  a  shilling.  § 

So,  when  wages  rose  after  the  rise  in  prices  in  the 
sixteenth,  seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  centuries,  the 
price  of  "  piece-work"  always  rose  correspondingly 
with  that  of  "day-work."  Thus,  in  1651,  when  the 
Essex  magistrates  fixed  the  wages  of  common  laborers 
at  one  shilling  and  twopence  a  day,  the  price  of  saw- 
ing one  hundred  planks  was  fixed  at  two  shillings  and 
sixpence,  or  one  shilling  and  threepence  for  each 
sawyer.  And  if  we  compare  the  price  paid  for  ''piece- 
work" in  the  same  industries  in  different  countries  or 
localities  where  similar  methods  of  production  are 
employed,  we  shall  find  that  the  rate  paid  will  vary 
according  to  the  difference  in  the  cost  of  living.  Thus, 
other  things  being  the  same,  the  price  of  '*  piece- 
work," like  that  of  "  day-work,"  is  always  higher  in 
large  cities  than  in  small  towns.  The  price  of  labor, 
whether  paid  by  the  piece  or  by  the  day,  has  always 
been  from  twenty-five  to   sixty   per   cent   higher   in 

*  *'  Work  and  Wages,"  p.  180. 

f  "  The  sawing  a  hundred  of  planks  was  always  estimated  from 
early  times  as  a  day's  work." — Rogers's  "  Work  and  Wages"  p.  39a. 
X  Ibid.t  p.  229,  §  Ibid.,  pp.  236,  237. 


piece-work:  prices  higher  in  large  cities.  183 

London  than  in  the  country.  And  for  the  same  reason 
**  piece-work"  as  well  as  **  day-work"  prices  are  higher 
in  New  York  City  than  in  London — higher  in  this 
country  generally  than  in  England,  and  higher  in  Eng- 
land than  on  the  continent.  Industrial  statistics,  as 
we  have  seen,  conclusively  show  that  the  yearly  earn- 
ings and  the  cost  of  living  of  weavers,  spinners,  shoe- 
makers, tailors,  printers,  etc.,  who  work  by  the  piece, 
sustain  as  close  and  consistent  a  relation  to  each  other 
as  do  those  of  bricklayers,  carpenters,  iron-workers, 
and  outdoor  laborers,  who  work  by  the  day. 

Again,  in  manufacturing  industries,  where  machinery 
/s  extensively  used  and  "piece-work"  is  the  general 
practice,  although  the  average  wages  keep  pace  with 
the  average  cost  of  living,  the  price  of  **  piece-work" 
always  varies  inversely  with  the  productive  capacity 
of  the  machinery.  In  the  cotton  industry  evidence  of 
this  fact  is  constantly  in  view.  Through  the  changes 
in  machinery,  which  are  mostly  gradual,  it  sometimes 
happens  that  two  kinds  of  machinery  (the  new  and  the 
old)  are  in  use  in  the  same  factory,  and  very  often  in 
the  same  locality,  at  the  same  time,  and  accordingly 
we  frequently  find  two  different  prices  paid  for  the 
same  work  in  the  same  town,  and  even  in  the  same 
establishment — not  a  different  rate  of  wages,  but  a 
different  scale  of  prices  y  in  order  to  equalize  the  rate  of 
wages.  And  sometimes,  in  order  to  avoid  two  scales 
of  prices  for  the  same  work,  one  will  be  put  on  "  day- 
work,"  the  rate  of  wages  being  fixed  upon  the  average 
earnings  of  the  other.  In  fact,  this  is  the  general 
practice  on  new  machinery,  until  its  productive  capac- 
ity IS  correctly  ascertained,  after  which  the  scale  of 
prices  is  fixed  accordingly. 

I  have,  myself,  seen  three  different  prices  paid  for 


i84  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

weaving  the  same  cloth  in  the  same  room,  all  because 
it  was  woven  in  different  kinds  of  looms.  For  ex- 
ample, a  fifty-inch  loom  will  not  run  as  fast  as  a  thirty- 
inch  loom — Le.,  the  shuttle  will  not,  ccsteris  paribus^ 
pass  as  many  times  a  minute  across  a  fifty-inch  space 
as  it  will  across  a  thirty-inch  space.  While  the  former 
to-day  will  run  at  the  rate  of  from  one  hundred  and 
thirty  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  picks  a  minute,  the 
latter  will  average  from  one  hundred  and  eighty  to  two 
hundred  picks  a  minute.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that 
when  thirty-inch  cloth  is  woven  in  forty  or  fifty-inch 
looms,  the  weavers  on  the  broad  looms  cannot  weave 
as  many  yards  per  day  as  those  on  the  narrow  looms  ; 
hence  a  higher  price  per  cut  or  per  yard  is  always  paid 
for  weaving  narrow  cloth  in  broad  than  in  narrow 
looms.  This  has  been  strikingly  illustrated  by  the 
operations  of  sheeting  manufacturers  in  Rhode  Island 
and  the  print-cloth  manufacturers  of  Fall  River,  Mass.* 
During  the  periods  of  depression  in  the  cotton  trade 
the  print-cloth  manufacturers  in  Fall  River  have  sev- 
eral times  stopped  or  run  short  time,  in  order  to  reduce 
the  stock  of  goods  in  the  market,  and  the  sheeting 
manufacturers  of  Rhode  Island,  in  order  to  produce 
the  same  effect  upon  the  sheeting  market,  suspended 
the  production  of  sheetings,  and  went  to  making  print- 
cloths  ;f  and  when  they  came  to  weave  print-cloth  in 
sheeting  looms,  notwithstanding  the  depressed  state 
of  trade  and  the  falling  state  of  the  labor  market,  they 
paid   three   and   four  cents  a  cut   more    for   weaving 

*  The  manufacturers  of  Fall  River  produce  over  one  fifth  of  thd  total 
output  of  print  cloth  in  the  United  States. 

f  This  has  frequently  been  made  the  excuse  for  reducing  wages 
instead  of  stopping  or  running  short  time  by  the  Fall  River  manufac- 
turers. 


A    SLIDING   SCALE   OF  PRICES.  185 

print-cloth  than  was  paid  by  the  print-cloth  manufac- 
turers. In  fact,  this  practice  is  so  general  that  in 
England,  in  the  accepted  schedules  of  prices  for  weav- 
ing which  are  agreed  upon  by  the  trades  unions  and 
the  employers'  associations,  allowance  is  invariably 
made  for  "  reed  space'' — i.e.,  unoccupied  space  in  the 
loom — which  is  practically  a  sliding  scale  of  prices, 
and  enables  the  weaver  to  earn  about  the  same,  what- 
ever kind  of  goods  he  weaves,  thereby  adjusting 
the  **  piece-work"  wages  to  the  average  **  day-work  " 
wages  or  standard  of  living. 

If  we  examine  the  shoe  trade  we  find  the  same  un- 
varying law  obtains  ;  and  while  the  average  wages  of 
shoemakers  have  grown  in  a  direct  ratio  with  the 
cost  of  living,  the  price  per  pair  for  making  shoes  has 
grown  less  and  less  in  proportion  as  improved  ma- 
chinery has  been  adopted.  The  same  is  strikingly 
true  in  the  watch  and  jewelry  business.  The  price  of 
piece-work  for  pivoting,  burnishing,  gilding,  fitting, 
casing,  etc.,  through  the  use  of  improved  tools  and 
machinery,  is  in  many  instances  from  fifty  to  seventy- 
five  per  cent  less  than  it  was  formerly.  Still,  the  real 
wages  in  these  industries  are  not  reduced,  the  price  of 
**  piece-work'*  being  lessened  only  in  proportion  as  the 
capacity  to  produce  is  increased.  But  while  wages 
never  rise  in  the  same  proportion  with  the  increased 
power  of  production,  the  price  of  commodities  always 
falls  in  that  ratio  ;  consequently,  though  the  nominal 
wages  of  watchmakers,  jewellers,  shoemakers,  and 
weavers  are  not  proportionately  higher,  the  prices  of 
watches,  jewelry,  cotton-cloth  and  shoes  are  relatively 
lower.  This  explains  the  fact  that  the  direct  and 
immediate  effect  of  improved  machinery  is  always 
more  strikingly  seen  in  lower  prices  than  in  higher 


1 86  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

wages,  all  of  which  is  in  strict  accord  with  the  doctrine 
that  the  price  of  labor  always  moves  in  direct  ratio 
with  the  cost  of  living,  and  that  of  commodities  in 
direct  ratio  with  the  cost  of  production. 

It  will  thus  be  observed  that  wherever  we  go  or  to 
whatever  industry  we  turn  our  attention,  we  find  that 
the  price  of  labor,  either  under  **  piece-work"  or 
**  day-work,"  is  ultimately  governed  by  the  same  law. 
Manifestly,  therefore, 

Whether  laborers  work  by  the  piece  or  work  by  the  day, 
The  cost  of  their  living  determines  their  pay. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

ULTIMATE  ANALYSIS   OF  THE   LAW   OF  WAGES. 
Section  I. — How  the  Standard  of  Living  is  Determined, 

Wages  being  governed  by  the  cost  of  living,  what- 
ever affects  that  must  indirectly  affect  wages.  Conse- 
quently, in  order  to  fully  understand  the  causes  which 
ultimately  determine  wages,  it  is  necessary  to  ascertain 
what  governs  the  cost  of  living. 

As  already  explained,*  the  cost  of  living  is  affected 
by  two  causes — viz.,  the  price  and  the  quantity  of  the 
commodities  the  laborer  consumes.  But  while  both 
of  these  affect  the  costy  only  the  latter  affects  the  stand- 
ard of  living.  Consequently,  though  they  both  affect 
nominal,  only  the  latter  affects  real  wages.  And  as 
it  is  only  the  changes  in  real  wages  that  produce  any 
permanent  effect  upon  the  material  and  social  well- 
being  of  the  masses,  it  is  only  with  real  wages  that  we 
are  here  concerned.  The  real  question  before  us,  then, 
is.  How  is  the  standard  of  living  determined  ?  f 

The  standard  of  living  in  any  community  will  be 
high  or  low,  according  as  the  social  life  of  the  masses 
is  simple  or  complex  ;  or,  in  other  words,  as  the  num- 
ber of  the  daily  wants  of  the  people  is  large  or  small. 
It  is  lower  in  Asia  than  in  Europe,  lower  in  Europe 
than  in  America,  lower  at  Five  Points  than  on  Fifth 


♦  Part  II.,  Chapter  II.».Sec.  V.  f  See  Chapter  IL,  Part  IL,  p.  88. 


1 88  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

Avenue,  for  the  reason  that  the  wants  of  the  people  in 
the  former  places  are  fewer  and  simpler  than  those  in  the 
latter.  We  may  be  told  that  "  if  wants  give  wealth, 
beggars  would  wear  diamonds  and  paupers  be  million- 
aires," But  such  statements  have  more  seeming  than 
soundness.  Indeed,  it  is  not  true,  in  any  economic 
sense,  that  beggars  want  diamonds.  If  they  had  dia- 
monds they  would  not  wear  them,  but  would  be  sure 
to  exchange  them  for  something  else.  When  people 
reach  the  dAdsaowA-wanting  point,  they  have  long 
ceased  to  be  beggars  and  paupers.  The  laborers  of 
India  and  China  do  not  want  the  conveniences  and  com- 
forts enjoyed  by  the  English  and  American  laborers,  nor 
do  those  of  the  latter  countries  wajit  the  luxuries  and 
elegancies  of  the  wealthy  classes.  We  do  not  mean  to 
say  that  beggars  would  not  accept  diamonds,  nor  that 
the  laboring  classes  in  Asia,  Europe,  and  America 
do  not  envy  the  comfort  and  luxury  of  the  wealthy 
classes  ;  but  a  mere  willingness  to  accept  a  thing,  or 
an  indifferent  desire  for  it,  or  even  a  desire  for  it 
strong  enough  to  complain  at  not  having  it,  is  not 
economically  a  want.  A  want,  in  the  true  sense  of 
the  term,  is  such  conscious  need  of  an  object  that  its 
absence  will  cause  sufficient  pain  to  induce  the  effort 
and  sacrifice  necessary  to  its  attainment.  Until  a  de- 
sire has  become  sufficiently  intense  to  produce  more 
pain  by  its  non-satisfaction  than  will  result  from  the 
labor  and  sacrifice  involved  in  satisfying  it,  it  is  not  a 
want,  but  merely  an  indifferent  or  non-effectual  desire  ; 
and,  therefore,  it  is  not  an  economic  force,  because  the 
need  to  consume  is  too  weak  to  impel  the  effort  to 
produce. 

Man  has  certain  wants  in  common  with  the  animals, 
and  to  that  extent  the  same  principle  operates  upon 


MAN'S  SOCIAL    WANTS.  189 

both  ;  and  in  proportion  to  the  similarity  of  their  wants 
are  their  efforts  aHke.  The  wants  of  the  animal  are 
exclusively  physical,  food,  shelter,  and  self-protection 
being  his  only  wants  ;  consequently,  it  is  only  for 
these  necessities  that  he  takes  risks  and  puts  forth 
efforts. 

But  man  is  capable  of  other  and  higher  wants  en- 
tirely unknown  to  the  lower  animals.  In  fact,  there 
is  no  conceivable  limit  to  the  extent  and  variety  of  the 
desires  and  wants  of  man's  higher  or  social  nature.  In 
proportion  as  his  wants  are  limited  to  his  physical 
necessities  does  he  remain  brutal  and  barbarous,  and 
according  as  the  desires  of  his  higher  nature  are  inten- 
sified into  wants  does  he  become  superior  to  the  ani- 
mals, and  rise  in  the  scale  of  intellectual  and  moral 
development.  Accordingly,  we  find  that  the  quantity 
of  wealth  produced  is  always  the  smallest  and  the 
scale  of  civilization  the  lowest  in  those  countries  where 
the  wants  of  the  people  are  the  fewest.  Nor  is  it  pos- 
sible that  this  should  be  otherwise  ;  for  the  standard 
of  living  can  never  rise  above  that  of  the  wants. 
Hence,  whether  we  will  put  forth  any  effort,  or  how 
much  effort  we  will  put  forth,  to  obtain  an  object,  will 
depend  upon  the  intensity  of  our  want.* 

Accordingly,  other  things  being  the  same,  we  will 
put  forth  more  effort  to  procure  necessities  than  con- 
veniences, and  more  to  obtain  conveniences  than  lux- 
uries and  amusements.  If  the  wages  of  the  sudra  of 
India  were  suddenly  increased  to  the  level  of  those  of 
the   American  laborer,  that   would    not    improve  the 

*  "  Those  nations  and  those  classes  of  a  nation  who  stand  highest 
in  the  scale  of  civilization  are  those  whose  wants,  as  experience  shows 
us,  are  the  most  numerous  and  whose  efforts  to  satisfy  those  wants 
are  the  most  unceasing." — HeartCs  ''^Plutology^'^  p.  20. 


IQO  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

standard  of  his  living.  Instead  of  consuming  more,  he 
would  simply  work  less  and  increase  his  dissipation  and 
wastefulness."^  This  explains  why  production  cannot 
be  much  in  advance  of  consumption,  and  why  the  ^- 
gregate  wealth  of  the  wprld  can  never  be  permanently 
much  in  excess  of  the  world's  aggregate  wants. 


Section  II. — Social  Wants — How  they  are  Determined. 

If  the  standard  of  living  is  governed  by  the  wants, 
the  question  that  next  arises  is,  what  determines  the 
wants  ? 

Man  is  a  twofold  being.  He  has  a  physical  and  a 
social  nature,  and,  consequently,  he  has  social  as  well 
as  physical  wants.  The  latter  arise  from  his  animal 
existence,  and  the  former  from  his  social  relations. 
Therefore  his  physical  wants,  like  those  of  the  lower 
animals,  are  few,  and  mostly  hereditary,  while  his  social 
wants  are  acquired  and  have  no  conceivable  limit.  As 
a  mere  physical  being,  however,  man  has  no  more 
economic  existence  than  a  tiger.  It  is  only  when  he 
associates  with  and  reposes  confidence  in  his  fellow- 
man  that  the  division  of  labor  and  exchange  are  pos- 
sible and  economic  forces  can  operate  upon  him.  It 
is,  therefore,  with  man  as  a  social  being  only  that 
political  economy  has  to  do.  If  man's  only  attainable 
wants  are  social,  it  follows  that  the  causes  which  gov- 
ern them  must  be  sought  for  in  his  social  conditions  ; 

*  "  If  by  digging  the  ground  a  whole  day  he  [the  Chinaman]  can 
get  what  will  purchase  a  small  quantity  of  rice  in  the  evening,  he  is 
content."— -"«/^a/M  of  Nations;'  Book  I.,  ch.  8,  p.  55.  See  also 
Brassey's  "  Work  and  Wages/*  pp.  88,  89  ;  Hearn's  "  Plutology,'* 
p.  20. 


THE  POWER   OF  HABIT.  191 

and  if  we  examine  the  history  of  man  we  shall  find 
that  his  wants  are  few  or  many,  and  high  or  low,  ac- . 
cording  to  the  quality  of  the  habits  and  customs  off 
the  society  in  which  he  moves.  Habit,  as  a  little 
observation  will  show,  not  only  governs  our  social 
wants,  but  it  exercises  an  important,  if  not  a  control- 
ling, influence  over  our  physical  wants  also.*  While 
it  does  not  determine  whether  or  not  we  shall  eat,  it 
does  decide  what  and  how  we  shall  eat,  the  clothes  we 
shall  wear,  and  the  house  we  shall  live  in — nay,  more, 
the  language  we  speak,  the  morals  we  adopt,  and  the 
religion  we  profess  are  all  determined  by  the  habits  and 
customs  of  those  among  whom  we  live.  Whether  we  are 
Christians,  Mohammedans,  or  Buddhists  ;  whether  we 
eat  with  chop-sticks  or  use  knives  and  forks,  and 
whether  we  live  upon  rice,  wear  wooden  shoes  and  a 
cotton  smock,  eat  black  bread  and  dress  in  sheep-skins, 
or  enjoy  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of  civilization,  all 
depends  upon  what  country  we  happen  to  live  in. 

Nor  is  this  confined  to  the  lower  classes  and  most 
barbarous  countries  ;  with  a  few  rare  exceptions,  the 
style  of  living,  the  personal  bearing,  the  company, 
and  travel  of  the  most  educated  and  cultured  classes 
in  the  most  advanced  countries  are  unconsciously  de- 
termined by  the  habits  and  customs  of  the  society  in 
which  they  move.  Habits  are  formed  long  before  the 
power  to  think  is  acquired  ;  it  is  much  easier  to  do 
as  others  do  than  to  theorize  about  new  methods. 

"This  aggregate  of  beliefs  and  predispositions  to 
believe,"  says  Grote,f  "  ethical,  religious,  aesthetical, 
social,  respecting  what  is  true  or  false,  probable  or  im- 


*  Bastiat's  "  Economic  Harmonies,"  p.  57. 

f  "  Plato  and  Other  Companions  of  Socrates,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  249. 


192  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

probable,  just  or  unjust,  holy  or  unholy,  honorable  or 
base,  respectable  or  contemptible,  pure  or  impure, 
beautiful  or  ugly,  decent  or  indecent,  obligatory  to  do 
or  obligatory  to  avoid,  respecting  the  status  and  rela- 
tions of  each  individual  in  the  society,  respecting  even 
the  admissible  fashions  of  amusement  and  recreation 
— this  is  an  established  fact  and  condition  of  things, 
the  real  origin  of  which  is  for  the  most  part  unknown, 
but  which  each  new  member  of  the  society  is  born  to 
and  finds  subsisting.  It  is  transmitted  by  tradition 
from  parents  to  children,  and  is  imbibed  by  the  latter 
almost  unconsciously  from  what  they  see  and  hear 
around,  without  any  special  season  of  teaching  or 
special  persons  to  teach.  It  becomes  a  part  of  each 
person's  nature — a  standing  habit  of  mind,  a  fixed  set 
of  mental  tendencies." 

In  fact,  habit  is  the  strongest  force  in  human  affairs. 
It  is  more  powerful  than  governments,  armies,  or 
the  most  absolute  despotism.  Governments  may  be 
changed  and  political  institutions  overturned,  wars  may 
be  waged,  the  people  may  be  plundered  and  even  mur- 
dered with  impunity,  but  if  the  most  powerful  mon- 
arch on  the  earth  should  attempt  to  suddenly  reverse 
the  habits  and  customs  of  his  people,  it  would  cost 
him  his  throne,  and  probably  his  head. 

The  power  of  habit  over  the  wants  and  conduct  of 
man  has  long  been  observed  by  the  best  minds,  al- 
though its  relation  to  economic  movement  has  never 
been  understood.  The  influence  of  custom  upon  ne- 
cessities was  observed  by  Adam  Smith,  who  says  :* 
**  By  necessaries  I  understand  not  only  the  com- 
modities  which   are   indispensably  necessary  for  the 

*  "  Wealth  of  Nations,"  Book  V.,  ch.  J{,  p.  691. 


THE  SOCIAL  INFLUENCE   OF  CUSTOM.  193 

support  of  life,  but  whatever  the  custom  of  the  country 
renders  it  indecent  for  creditable  people,  even  of  the 
lowest  order,  to  be  without.  .  .  .  Custom,  in  the  same 
manner,  has  rendered  leather  shoes  a  necessary  of  life 
in  England.  The  poorest  creditable  person  of  either 
sex  would  be  ashamed  to  appear  in  public  without 
them.  In  Scotland,  custom  has  rendered  them  a 
necessary  of  life  to  the  lowest  order  of  men,  but  not 
to  the  same  order  of  women,  who  may,  without  any 
discredit,  walk  about  barefooted." 

**  The  circumstances  and  habits  of  living  prevalent 
in  England,"  says  Torrens,*  **  have  long  determined 
that  women  in  the  laboring  classes  shall  wear  their 
feet  and  legs  covered,  and  eat  wheaten  bread,  with  a 
portion  of  animal  food.  Now,  long  before  the  rate  of 
wages  could  be  so  reduced  as  to  compel  women  in  this 
part  of  the  united  kingdom  to  go  with  their  legs  and 
feet  uncovered,  and  to  subsist  upon  potatoes,  with  per- 
haps a  little  milk  from  which  the  butter  had  been 
taken,  all  the  laboring  classes  would  be  upon  parochial 
support,  and  the  land,  in  a  great  measure,  depopu- 
lated." 

Therefore,  if,  as  we  have  seen,  wages  are  regulated 

*  "Essay  on  the  External  Corn  Trade,"  pp.  57,  58.  See  also 
Spencer's  "  Social ,  Statics,"  pp.  102,  103;  Draper's  "Intellectual 
Development  of  Europe,"  pp.  5,  6,  7  ;  Wade's  "  Political  Economy," 
pp.  87,  88;  Walker's  "Wages  Question,"  pp.  118,  iig,  120; 
Rogers's  "  Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages,"  pp.  169,  170  ; 
Brassey's  "  Work  and  Wages,"  pp.  15,  16,  59,  60,  61,  70,  88,  89,  93, 
95,  96,  105,  108,  163  ;  ibid.,  2d  ed.,  ch.  8,  pp.  160,  161,  164,  165  ; 
Cairne's  "  Some  Leading  Principles  of  Political  Economy,"  pp.  3,  10, 
362  ;  McCulloch's  "  Principles  of  Political  Economy,"  Part  III., 
sec.  7,  p.  181  ;  J.  S.  Mill's  "  Principles  of  Political  Economy,"  Vol. 
I.,  pp.  250-258,  inclusive  ;  Ricardo's  "  Works,"  ch.  5,  p.  52,  1881  ; 
Bastiat's  "  Harmonies  of  Political  Economy,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  51. 
10 


194  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

by  the  standard  of  living,  and  the  standard  of  living  is 
governed  by  the  wants  ;  and  if,  as  is  generally  agreed, 
wants  are  determined  by  habit,  it  follows  that,  in  the 
ultimate  analysis,  the  law  of  wages  has  its  rise  in  the 
habits  and  customs  of  the  people.  The  habits  of  man, 
which  are  simply  his  aggregate  wants,  constitute  his 
real  social  character.  Ultimately,  then,  social  progress 
is  neither  more  nor  less  than  the  change  of  human 
habits,  or,  in  other  words,  the  increase  of  human  wants, 
which  constitute  the  differentiation  of  social  character. 

Here  we  have  the  true  source  from  whence  the  reg- 
ulating principle  in  wages  arises,  and  therefore  the 
basis  upon  which  all  industrial  phenomena  can  be  sci- 
entifically investigated.  Human  character  being  the 
focal  point  upon  which  all  economic  and  social  influ- 
ences affecting  progress  must  operate,  it  is  manifest 
that  nothing  can  permanently  affect  real  wages  which 
does  not  operate  upon  and  through  the  habits  and 
customs  of  the  people.* 

Applying  this  test  to  economic  phenomena,  the  fail- 
ure of  the  thousands  of  legislative  and  other  artificial 
attempts  to  fix  wages,  and  otherwise  arbitrarily  regu- 
late the  production  and  distribution  of  wealth,  at  once 
becomes  explainable.  Legislation  upon  trade,  trans- 
portation, money,  mines,  railroads,  land,  rents,  profits, 
interest,  wages,  etc.,  is  as  powerless  to  permanently 
force  wages  up  as  the  **  Statute  of  Laborers,"  the 
'*  Allowance  System,"  and  the  "  Conspiracy  Laws," 
enacted  against  trades  unions,  were  in  keeping  them 
down.     The  wonder,   however,   is  not   that   all  such 

*  "  No  remedies  for  low  wages  have  the  smallest  chance  of  being 
efficacious  which  do  not  operate  on  and  through  the  minds  and  habits 
of  the  people,  "—il////' J  "  Principles  of  Political  Economy  y"  Book  II., 
ch.  12,  §  4,  pp.  455,  456. 


TRUE  TEST  OF  ECONOMIC  SOUNDNESS.         195 

efforts  should  fail,  but  that  intelligent  people   should 
ever  have  expected  them  to  succeed.* 

Here,  then,  we  repeat,  is  the  true  standard  by  which 
the  economic  soundness-of  all  methods  of  dealing  with 
industrial  conditions  must  be  estimated.  It  is  here 
we  must  look  for  the  true  answer  to  the  question, 
**  What  type  of  social  structure  am  I  tending  to  pro- 
duce ?"  Whether  or  not,  or  to  what  extent,  any 
proposition  or  policy  will  affect  wages,  and,  therefore, 
general  prosperity,  entirely  depends  upon  whether  or 
not,  or  to  what  extent,  it  will  influence  the  wants,  hab- 
its, and  social  character  of  the  masses. 


Section  III. — The  Influences  which  Determine  Social 
Character. 

If  we  take  man  at  the  time  he  enters  the  world  we 
find  his  wants  are  very  few,  exceedingly  simple,  and 
exclusively  animal  ;  and  whether  he  is  in  Asia,  Africa, 
Europe,  or  America,  or  whether  he  is  the  son  of  a  slave 
or  a  prince  of  the  blood,  makes  little  real  difference. 
Wherever  or  whatever  he  is,  his  wants  at  this  stage  of 
his  existence  are  about  the  same.  Food,  with  suffi- 
cient warmth  to  sustain  his  physical  organization,  com- 
prises the  whole  list  of  his  requirements.  Nor  does 
his  nationality,  social  status,  or  parentage  make  any 
real  difference  as  to  what  that  food  shall  be.  Whether 
he  is  in  savagery  or  civilization  at  this  point,  it  will  be 
substantially  the  same,  and  will  consist  of  the  natural 
milk  of  his  mother,  or  a  substitute  as  near  like  that  as 
possible. 

*  Herbert  Spencer's  "  Social  Statics,"  p.  22. 


196  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

This  being  the  extent  of  man's  wants  when  he  enters 
the  world,  it  is  manifest  that  all  his  other  wants,  of 
whatever  nature,  are  acquired  afterwards.  The  ac- 
quired wants,  which  we  have  seen  constitute  the  dis- 
tinctive character  of  man,  are  therefore  produced  by- 
causes  which  operate  upon  him  after  birth.  These 
causes  may  be  grouped  under  two  general  heads,  as 
internal  and  external.  The  former  includes  those 
forces  which  arise  from  the  inherent  qualities  of  man's 
organization,  such  as  temperaments  and  other  heredi- 
tary tendencies.  The  latter  includes  all  the  influences 
which  arise  from  his  social  environment.  His  wants 
and  character  being  the  resul^  of  the  joint  operation  of 
these  two  sets  of  causes,  in  order  to  understand  how 
wants  can  be  increased,  it  is  essential  to  ascertain 
which  of  them  exercises  the  dominating  influence  in 
determining  wants  and  social  character. 

Although  the  subject  of  temperaments  and  heredity 
is  an  unsettled  one,  there  is  a  conviction  among  scien- 
tists, writers  and  thinkers  upon  this  subject  that  cer- 
tain qualities  of  organization  exercise  an  influence  in 
determining  the  general  tendency  of  character.  That 
is  to  say,  other  things  being  the  same,  the  desires, 
wants,  and  character  of  individuals,  nations,  or  races 
will  naturally  tend  in  a  certain  direction.  It  is  not  pre- 
tended that  the  internal  power  of  hereditary  qualities 
of  organization  cannot  be  modified  or  even  reversed 
by  the  influence  of  external  circumstances.  But  all 
religious,  educational,  and  reformatory  institutions 
are  based  upon  the  idea  that  environment  is  more 
powerful  than  heredity  as  a  factor  in  determining 
the  wants  and  habits  of  man.  Indeed,  it  is  only 
on  the  condition  that  the  general  environment  re- 
mains  unchanged,    that   it    is    claimed   that    the   in- 


INTERNAL  AND  EXTERNAL  FORCES.  197 

ternal  or  hereditary  qualities  govern  the  tendency 
of  character.  All  history  testifies  to  the  fact  that  a 
change  in  the  surrounding  circumstances  of  man  will 
not  only  produce  a  corresponding  change  in  his  wants 
and  habits,  but  that  it  will  also,  though  in  a  less  degree, 
cause  a  similar  change  in  the  hereditary  tendency  of 
his  organization. 

It  will  be  observed,  however,  that  what  is  thus  trans-  ^ 
mitted  is  not  wants,  nor  anything  that  constitutes 
wants,  but  merely  the  capacity  for  acquiring  wants 
and  character,  if  the  opportunity  for  their  acquirement 
presents  itself  ;  or,  in  other  words,  it  is  simply  a  modi- 
fication of  man's  susceptibility  to  the  influence  of 
external  circumstances,  of  which  it  is  itself  a  result. 
It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  it  is  not  the  internal  power 
or  hereditary  qualities  of  man's  organization,  but  the 
pressure  of  external  forces,  that  exercise  the  controlling 
influence  in  determining  social  character.*  This  being 
true,  it  follows  that  man's  wants  will  be  many  and 
varied,  or  few  and  simple,  according  to  the  variety  and 
intensity  of  the  social  influences  by  which  he  is  more 
or  less  constantly  surrounded. 

Man  is  essentially  a  conservative  as  well  as  a  social 
being,  and  only  yields  to  changes  when  opposition  be- 
comes more  painful  than  acquiescence.  It  is  for  this 
reason  that  his  wants  and  character  change  slowly, 
and  progress  is  by  slow  degrees. 

*  *'  Whatever,  therefore,  the  moral  and  intellectual  progress  of  man 
may  be,"  says  Buckle,  "  it  resolves  itself  not  into  a  progress  of  natural 
capacity,  but  into  a  progress,  if  I  may  so  say,  of  opportunity — that  is, 
an  improvement  in  the  circumstances  under  which  that  capacity  after 
birth  comes  into  play.  Here,  then,  lies  the  gist  of  the  whole  matter. 
The  progress  is  not  one  of  internal  power,  but  of  external  advantage." 
— ^^ History  of  Civilization,'^  Vol.  I.,  ch.  3,  p.  128. 


198  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

The  child,  instead  of  tiring  of  his  first  diet  and 
wanting  a  change,  can  only  by  the  pressure  of  external 
influences  be  induced  to  accept  anything  else,  as  all 
weaning  experiences  demonstrate.  By  the  constant 
presentation  of  the  new  food,  however,  he  not  only 
takes  it,  but  comes  to  like  it,  and  finally  prefers  it  to 
his  previous  diet.  By  repeated  gratification,  the  de- 
sire thus  produced  for  the  new  food  naturally  grows 
stronger,  and  soon  develops  into  a  want,  which  by  the 
force  of  habit  ultimately  becomes  an>  imperative  neces- 
sity, the  non-satisfaction  of  which  will  cause  as  much 
pain  as  did  the  withholding  of  the  milk.*  Thus,  by 
the  pressure  of  external  forces  the  child  learns  to  like 
what  previous  habits  have  taught  its  parents  to  re- 
gard as  best  for  it.  What  parental  authority  is  to 
the  child  environment  is  to  the  adult.  The  changes 
are,  of  course,  much  less  painful  to  the  adult  than  to 
the  child,  because  they  are  generally  much  less  abrupt. 
If,  however,  the  average  American  was  suddenly  com- 
pelled to  live  upon  the  diet  of  the  Hindoo,  his  suffer- 
ing would  scarcely  be  less  acute  than  that  of  the  wean- 
ing baby,  and  it  would  last  much  longer,  because  his 
character  is  more  firmly  fixed.  The  same  would  be 
true  if  the  Hindoo  was  suddenly  forced  to  adopt  the 
diet  and  manners  of  the  American.  In  proportion  as 
volition  supplants  arbitrary  authority  these  changes 
naturally  become  less  painful,  because  they  are  more 
gradual  and  insensible  ;  but  they  are  nevertheless  pro- 
duced by  the  same  general  causes.  Not  to  eat,  drink, 
and  wear  what  is  commonly  accepted  by  those  with 
whom  we  live  or  associate,  or  even  frequently  come  in 
contact  with,  is  to  incur  the  criticism,  disapprobation, 

*  Carpenter's  "  Mental  Physiology,'*  ch.  8,  pp.  351,  361. 


SOCIAL  INFLUENCES  IRRESISTIBLE.  199 

or  even  ostracism  of  society,  which  will  be  more  or  less 
severe,  according  to  the  degree  in  which  we  dissent 
from  the  traditional  mode  of  living.  The  social  nature 
of  man  is  so  strong  that  to  be  excluded  from  the 
society  of  his  fellows  is  one  of  the  severest  punish- 
ments that  can  be  inflicted  upon  him. 

Indeed,  excommunication  has  ever  been  the  most 
effective  weapon  with  which  society  could  inflict  pain 
upon  its  individual  members.  In  order  to  avoid  the 
pain  thus  inflicted — to  a  large  extent  unconsciously — 
man  naturally  tends  to  either  adapt  himself  to  the 
prevailing  mode  of  living  or  to  gravitate  toward  a 
social  atmosphere  more  congenial  to  him.  And 
upon  the  same  principle,  whether  he  will  adopt  the 
former  or  the  latter  course  will  depend  solely  upon 
which  of  the  two  changes  will  be  the  least  painful 
to  him. 

For  the  same  reason  that  the  child,  through  the 
pressure  of  parental  authority,  learns  to  like  that 
which  its  parents  habitually  use,  the  adult,  through 
the  less  abrupt,  though  no  less  effective,  pressure  of 
social  environment,  acquires  similar  likes  and  dislikes 
to  those  with  whom  he  is  immediately  and  most  con- 
stantly surrounded,  and,  consequently,  we  always  find 
him  living  upon  the  same  general  diet  and  adopting 
the  same  general  mode  of  life  as  the  family,  class,  or 
country  to  which  he  happens  to  belong.  Although 
habits  and  customs  thus  form,  as  it  were,  a  granite 
wall  of  resistance  to  all  changes  and,  therefore,  to  all 
progress,  they  also  form  the  strongest  defence  against 
retrogression  ;  for  while  habit  will  resist  the  advent  of 
the  new,  it  will  also  make  a  desperate  struggle  against 
losing  the  old.  While  it  is  only  through  the  persistent 
battering  of  external  forces  that  it  consents  to  take  a 


200  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

step  forward,  it  will  fight   '*as  unto  death"   against 
taking  one  backward. 

Although  the  hesitating  influence  of  habit,  which 
constitutes  the  real  conservative  element  in  human 
character,  compels  progress  to  move  slowly,  it  is  also 
the  most  unfailing  guaranty  for  its  permanence.  What 
is  thus  true  of  our  primary  wants  is  even  more  strik- 
ingly true  of  our  higher  social  and  intellectual  wants. 
By  both  instinct  and  reason  we  endeavor  to  avoid  pain 
and  obtain  pleasure — ^>.,  we  endeavor  to  move  in  the 
direction  of  the  least  resistance.  We  therefore  nat- 
urally desire  to  obtain  such  things  as  make  others 
happy  and  avoid  those  which  make  others  miserable  ; 
and  the  more  we  see  and  understand  them  the  strong- 
er will  be  our  desire  to  obtain  or  avoid  one  or  the 
other.  In  proportion  as  the  desire  to  obtain  pos- 
session of  any  object  strengthens,  the  pain  arising 
from  its  non-satisfaction  increases,  until  it  finally  be- 
comes greater  than  that  involved  in  the  effort  neces- 
sary to  satisfy  it.  And  according  to  the  well-estab- 
lished principle,  that  the  power  of  our  faculties  increases 
with  use,  the  more  frequently  the  desire  for  an  object 
is  satisfied  the  stronger  it  becomes,  and  the  greater 
will  be  the  effort  put  forth  for  its  gratification.  Thus 
desires,  by  repeated  satisfaction,  grow  into  tastes,  and 
tastes  into  absolute  wants,  which  ultimately  become 
a  part  of  the  fixed  character,  or  **  second  nature."  * 


*  "  It  is  a  phenomenon  well  worthy  of  remark,  how  quickly,  by 
continuous  satisfaction,  what  was  at  first  only  a  vague  desire  becomes 
a  taste,  and  what  was  only  a  taste  is  transformed  into  a  want,  and 
even  a  want  of  the  imperious  kind." — BastiaCs  '*  Economic  Har- 
monies** p.  52.  "  By  the  powerful  influence  of  habit  the  desire 
becomes  a  taste,  and  the  taste  quickly  passes  into  an  absolute  want." 
— Hearn  s  "Flutology,**  p.  14. 


HOW  NE IV  WANTS  ARE   CREATED.  201 

Nor  IS  the  influence  of  a  want  confined  to  its  own 
satisfaction.  In  accordance  with  the  principle '  that 
the  strength  of  a  desire  increases  with  its  gratification, 
does  the  complete  satisfaction  of  a  want  tend  to  give 
rise  to  new  desires.  Each  new  want  calls  forth  a  new 
effort  for  its  gratification,  and  thereby  enlarges  the 
field  of  experience,  by  making  more  frequent  and  vari- 
ous social  intercourse  necessary,  from  which  new  de- 
sires naturally  arise. 

This  fact  was  clearly  observed  by  Professor  Ban- 
field,  who  says:*  "The  satisfaction  of  every  lower 
want  in  the  scale  creates  the  desire  of  a  higher  charac- 
ter. If  the  higher  desire  existed  previous  to  the  satis- 
faction of  the  primary  want,  it  becomes  more  intense 
when  the  latter  is  removed.  The  removal  of  a  primary 
want  commonly  awakens  the  sense  of  more  than  one 
secondary  privation.  Thus  a  full  supply  of  ordinary 
food  not  only  excites  to  delicacy  in  eating,  but  awak- 
ens attention  to  clothing.  The  highest  grade  in  the 
scale  of  wants,  that  of  pleasure  derived  from  the 
beauties  of  nature  and  art,  is  usually  confined  to  men 
who  are  exempted  from  all  the  lower  privations.  Thus 
the  demand  for  and  consumption  of  objects  of  refined 
enjoyment  has  its  lever  in  the  facility  with  which  the 
primary  wants  are  satisfied. " 

Nor  is  this  all  ;  for  it  follows  that,  for  the  same  rea- 
son that  the  satisfaction  of  the  primary  wants  gives  rise 
to  new  desires,  must  the  new  social  influences  with 
which  one  comes  in  contact,  in  the  satisfaction  of  these 
desires,  as  they  become  transformed  into  wants,  give 
rise  to  still  more  desires.  Thus  the  gratification  of 
present  wants  becomes  the  ever-increasing  source   of 

*  **  Organization  of  Industry,"  1844,  2d  ed.,  pp.  11,  12. 


2  02  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS, 

new  desires,  and  constantly  tends  to  further  develop- 
ment. Again,  the  larger  the  number  of  established 
wants,  the  larger  will  be  the  number  and  the  greater 
the  variety  of  the  constantly-increasing  new  desires. 

The  reason  for  this  is  obvious  :  the  more  numerous 
our  established  wants,  the  wider  will  be  the  field  of  our 
experience  ;  and  the  more  frequent  and  varied  our 
social  intercourse,  travel,  etc.,  the  greater  will  be  the 
opportunity  for  external  objects  to  excite  our  admi- 
ration and  create  within  us  new  desires.  And  as  our 
desire  for  and  efforts  to  obtain  any  object  is  governed 
by  our  estimation  of  its  capacity  to  increase  our  hap- 
piness, it  follows  that  in  proportion  as  we  are  ac- 
quainted with  the  nature  and  influence  of  external 
objects,  is  our  power  of  judging  of  their  relation  to 
ourselves  and  their  suitability  to  our  purpose  in- 
creased, and,  consequently,  our  capacity  for  desire 
enlarged.  And,  according  as  our  capacity  for  desire 
enlarges,  our  social,  intellectual,  and  moral  character 
is  developed,  and  thereby  the  power  of  satisfying  our 
most  numerous  wants  is  increased.  It  is  thus  mani- 
fest not  only  that  our  wants  are  directly  produced  by 
the  pressure  of  external  circumstances,  but  that  our 
capacity  for  desiring  and  acquiring  new  objects  is  also 
determined  by  the  extent  and  variety  of  our  oppor- 
tunities for  contact  with  social  influences.  In  fact, 
there  is  no  conceivable  limit  to  the  development  of 
man's  social  wants  and  his  ability  to  satisfy  them, 
except  those  fixed  by  his  opportunities. 

"  It  therefore  depends,"  as  Professor  Hearn  ob- 
serves,* "  upon  the  education^  in  the  widest  sense  of 

*  "  Plutology,"  pp.  19,  20. 


SOCIAL   OPPORTUNITY  FOR    THE  MASSES.      203 

that  term,  of  each  individual  and  upon  his  character  as 
mainly  resulting  from  that  education ,  how  many  and 
what  kind  of  objects^  and  with  what  persistejicy  he  de- 
sires/^ .  .  .  We  know  that  the  desires  of  educated 
men  are  more  varied  and  more  extended  than  those 
of  persons  without  education.  We  know  that  the 
wages  of  educated  men  are  higher  and,  consequently, 
the  means  of  gratifying  their  desires  greater  than  those 
of  the  uneducated.'* 

The  power  of  social  influences  in  shaping  man's  de- 
sires, wants,  habits,  and  character  is  everywhere  mani* 
fest.  It  is  the  recognition  of  this  fact  that  makes 
us  so  solicitous  about  what  our  children  shall  see 
and  hear,  or  where  they  shall  go,  the  school  they 
shall  attend,  the  company  they  shall  keep,  the  amuse- 
ments they  shall  have,  etc.  Even  parents  who  are  in 
the  habit  of  frequenting  saloons  will  forbid  their 
children  going  to  such  places,  and  none  but  the 
most  degraded  will  allow  their  children  to  see  them 
do  so. 

Indeed,  the  whole  history  of  the  human  race  is  one 
continuous  stream  of  evidence  of  the  universal  opera- 
tion of  this  principle.  Wherever  man's  social  oppor- 
tunities have  been  the  most  restricted,  his  wants, 
tastes,  and  desires  are  the  most  limited,  and  his  indus- 
trial and  political  character  has  made  the  least  prog- 
ress, and  vice  versa.  For  the  same  reason  that  the  ex- 
tent of  man's  wants  and  the  development  of  his  char- 
acter is  the  measure  of  social  progress,  so,  too,  the  ex- 
tent of  his  opportunities  to  increase  those  wants  and 
develop  that  character  is  the  true  measure  of  civiliza- 

*  The  italics  are  our  own. 


204  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

tion.  Therefore,  how  to  increase  the  wants,  develop 
the  character,  and  consequently  advance  the  wages  of 
the  laboring  classes,  ultimately  resolves  itself  into  the 
question,  How  can  the  social  opportunities  of  the  masses 
be  enlarged  ? 


PART   III. 

PRINCIPLES  AND  METHODS  OF  SOCIAL   REFORM. 


CHAPTER    I. 

POPULAR   REMEDIES   FOR   SOCIAL  EVILS. 

Section    I. — Industrial   Progress   the  Cause ^  not   the 
Consequence^  of  Political  Freedom, 

The  various  efforts  to  promote  industrial  reform 
have  hitherto  been  put  forth  in  three  general  classes 
of  propositions.  Among  the  first  class  are  the  propo- 
sitions to  improve  industrial  conditions  by  changing 
political  institutions.  All  such  propositions  are  un- 
sound, and  hence  must  fail  to  accomplish  the  desired 
end,  because  they  are  based  upon  the  popular  but  in- 
verted idea  that  material  prosperity  depends  upon 
political  liberty,  whereas  the  very  reverse  is  true.  The 
history  of  human  progress  is  one  continuous  train  of 
evidence  showing  that,  instead  of  political  freedom 
being  the  cause,  it  has  everywhere  been  the  effect  of 
industrial  prosperity. 

Freedom  does  not  consist  in  the  mere  absence  of 
legal  barriers,  but  in  the  actual  power  to  go  and  to  do. 
The  poor  can  never  \iQfree  in  any  true  sense  of  the  term. 
Whoever  controls  a  man's  living  can  determine  his 
liberty.     Freedom  means  independence,  which  noth- 


206  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

ing  but  wealth  can  impart.     Even  intelligence  cannot 
give  independence,  except  as  it  can  give  wealth. 

The  reason  the  greatest  intellects  in  art,  science, 
poetry,  politics,  and  literature  through  the  ages  have 
for  the  most  part  been  the  slaves  of  royalty,  the  nobil- 
ity, or  the  commercial  aristocracy,  is  because  the  pov- 
erty of  the  former  made  the  patronage  of  the  latter 
indispensable  to  their  life  and  labors.  There  is  no 
power  on  earth  that  can  give  freedom  to  the  poor. 
Poverty  and  freedom  are  incompatible  with  each 
other. 

Whatever  may  be,  theoretically,  the  form  of  gov- 
ernment, the  political  freedom — real  power  and  in- 
fluence— of  the  masses  is  always  proportionate  to 
their  industrial  prosperity  and  progress.  Thus,  the 
political  influence  of  the  masses  is  far  greater  under 
the  present  European  monarchies  than  it  was  under 
the  ancient  republics.  And  the  political  influence  of  the 
masses  is  greatest  to-day  in  those  countries  where  the 
industrial  conditions — real  wages — are  the  highest. 
The  laboring  classes  possess  more  political  influence 
j  and  freedom  in  England  under  a  monarchy  with  higher 
Iwages,  than  they  do  in  France  under  a  republic  with 
/lower  wages  ;  and  there  is  still  more  real  democracy 
with  higher  wages  under  a  republic  in  America  than 
with  lower  wages  under  a  monarchy  in  England. 

We  repeat,  therefore,  that  the  popular  idea  that 
pervades  the  literature  and  forms  the  basis  of  the 
statesmanship  of  the  period,  which  ascribes  our 
superior  civilization  to  our  democratic  institutions, 
and  which  has  just  been  emphasized  by  an  interna- 
tional monument  in  New  York  harbor,  representing 
liberty  as  enlightening  the  world,  is  radically  and  fun- 
damentally false.     It  is  not  true  that  our  superior  civil- 


THE  ECONOMIC  CONDITION  OF  WOMAN,       207 

ization  is  due  to  our  democratic  institutions  ;  it  is 
not  and  never  was  true  that  liberty  enlightens  the 
world.  On  the  contrary,  our  democratic  institutions 
are  the  natural  consequence  of  our  industrial  prosper- 
ity and  superior  civilization  ;  and  liberty,  like  moral- 
ity, instead  of  enlightening  the  world,  is  the  golden 
result  of  the  world's  being  enlightened  by  the  material 
and  social  progress  of  society.  Were  this  otherwise, 
the  industrial  depressions  which  afflict  the  Old  World 
would  be  unknown  here.  The  notorious  fact  is  that 
the  frequency  and  severity  of  industrial  depressions 
are  as  great  under  the  democracies  of  France  and 
America  as  under  the  monarchies  of  England,  Ger- 
many, and  Belgium. 

When  the  advocates  of  woman  suffrage  demand  the 
ballot  for  her  on  the  ground  that  it  will  enable  her  to 
become  the  industrial  or  economic  equal  of  man,  they 
are  logically  and  historically  putting  the  cart  before 
the  horse.  There  is  no  logical  reason  why  woman 
should  not  be  permitted  to  vote  on  the  same  condi- 
tions as  man.  The  mistake  is  not  in  claiming  for  her 
the  right  to  vote  on  the  same  conditions  that  it  is  con- 
ceded to  man,  but  in  assuming  that  the  industrial  con- 
dition of  either  man  or  woman  would  necessarily  be 
improved  by  their  having  that  right.  Woman  is  not 
industrially  and  socially  inferior  to  man  because  she 
does  not  vote,  but  she  does  not  vote  because  of  her 
industrial  and  social  inferiority  ;  in  a  word,  it  is  be- 
cause she  is  poorer,  and,  consequently,  less  independent 
than  man. 

Her  wages  and  general  industrial  conditions  are 
governed  by  the  same  economic  laws  as  those  of  man. 
Her  condition,  therefore,  can  only  be  improved  by  the 
same  methods  that  will  improve  his.     Woman  is  ma- 


2o8  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

terlally  more  dependent  than  man,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  she  has  had  less  opportunity  for  social 
development  than  he  has.  Her  material  condition, 
like  his,  is  the  result  of  her  industrial  and  social  envi- 
ronment, and  it  can  be  changed  only  through  changing 
her  relations  with  that  environment.  In  other  words, 
the  economic  condition  of  woman,  like  that  of  man, 
can  only  be  elevated  by  increasing  her  opportunity  for 
more  frequent  and  varied  contact  with  new  and  more 
complex  social  influences. 

Therefore,  as  the  social  disadvantages  of  woman 
arise  from  industrial  causes,  all  attempts  to  improve 
her  social  position  by  changing  her  political  relations 
are  economically  unsound  and  practically  false  and 
illusive. 

The  same  is  true  of  all  propositions  for  prohibition 
and  other  sumptuary  legislation.  This  class  of  reform- 
ers act  upon  the  idea  that  drunkenness  is  the  cause 
instead  of  the  consequence  of  poverty  and  its  degrad- 
ing influences.  They  talk  and  act  as  if  men  drink  rum 
because  saloons  are  numerous,  whereas  the  truth  is 
that  saloons  are  numerous  because  men  drink  rum.  It 
is  true  that  drunkenness,  like  pestilence,  tends  to  in- 
crease poverty,  but  the  former,  like  the  latter,  can 
exist  only  in  the  social  and  sanitary  atmosphere  which 
poverty  makes  possible.  Drunkenness  is  as  much  a 
social  disease  as  cholera  and  small-pox  are  physical 
diseases.  Indeed,  they  are  both  primarily  due  to  the 
same  general  economic  causes — poverty  and  its  conse- 
quent degrading  social  and  unwholesome  sanitarj^  con- 
ditions. It  is  true  that  drunkenness  becomes  a  quality 
of  human  character,  but  character  is  the  moral  conse- 
quence— the  infallible  register  of  the  ethical  influence 
of   social   environment.     Vital  and  criminal  statistics. 


DRUN'KENNESS  A    SOCIAL  DISEASE.  209 

the  world  over,  show  that  crime  and  disease  are  most 
prevalent  where  poverty  most  abounds.  The  rum- 
shop  everywhere  vies  with  the  home.  In  the  poor- 
est quarters  of  our  large  cities,  where  the  social  influ- 
ences and,  consequently,  the  moral  character  is  the 
lowest,  the  rumshops  are  the  most  numerous  and  de- 
grading. 

In  the  vicinity  of  the  lowest  class  of  tenement-houses, 
where  whole  families  eat,  sleep,  and  work  in  one  or 
two  rooms  (of  which  there  are  thousands  in  New 
York  City  alone),  the  rumshops  are  unattractive,  ill- 
appointed,  and  often  filthy,  their  attendants  are  un- 
tidy, coarse,  insolent,  and  not  infrequently  brutal  in 
their  bearing.  But  as  we  approach  the  localities 
where  the  material  conditions  of  the  bulk  of  the  com- 
munity are  higher  and  their  homes  and  social  sur- 
roundings are  better,  we  find  the  saloons  become  fewer 
in  number  and  superior  in  quality.  They  become 
cleaner,  more  commodious,  and  better  appointed  ;  their 
attendants  are  correspondingly  neater,  more  intelli- 
gent and  attractive  personally,  and  more  courteous  and 
gentlemanly  in  their  attentions  and  bearing.  When 
we  reach  the  *'  Murray  Hills,"  the  "  Back  Bays,"  and 
the  **  West  Ends,"  where  the  average  material  and 
social  conditions  are  the  highest,  the  saloon  fails  to 
compete  with  the  general  comforts  and  refinements  of 
the  home,  and  therefore  it  practically  disappears. 

In  the  lowest  districts  where  wages  are  the  smallest, 
the  homes  the  poorest,  and  the  rumshops  the  vil- 
est, the  man  who  gets  drunk  and  abuses  his  family,  or 
even  is  sent  to  the  house  of  correction  occasionally, 
does  not  lose  his  social  reputation  and  character.  He 
may  be  referred  to  as  **  a  little  unfortunate,"  but  it  in 
no  way  affects  his  social  standing  in  the  class  to  which 


2IO  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

he  belongs.  Indeed,  he  would  be  more  liable  to  be 
ostracized  in  such  a  social  atmosphere  if  he  did  not 
get  drunk  occasionally.  If  we  go  into  districts  where 
the  wages,  homes,  and  social  surroundings  are  of  a 
higher  grade  and  the  rumshop  is  better,  we  find  drunk- 
enness less  general. 

A  man  there  may,  perhaps,  be  excused  for  getting 
drunk  occasionally,  but  if  he  does  it  habitually,  or  dis- 
turbs the  peace,  or  abuses  his  family,  and  if  he  should 
be  arrested,  he  would  lose  caste  with  his  neighbors,  and 
soon  become  socially  ostracized.  And  in  the  localities 
where  material  and  social  conditions  are  still  better, 
and  the  general  culture  and  refinement  is  greater, 
we  find  this  social  boycott  automatically  imposed  on 
much  smaller  provocation.  Here  drinking  will  neces- 
sarily be  conducted  more  cautiously  ;  a  man  will  take 
great  pains  to  avoid  being  regarded  as  a  tippler. 
If,  through  over-indulgence,  he  should  fall  into  the 
hands  of  an  officer  of  the  law,  great  efforts  will  be 
made,  perhaps  bribes  paid — as  is  commonly  the  case — 
to  keep  it  out  of  the  public  prints,  or  from  otherwise 
becoming  known,  in  order  to  escape  the  loss  of  repu- 
tation and  the  social  boycott  necessarily  consequent 
upon  such  conduct.  And  in  the  localities  where  the 
superior  material  conditions  and  social  refinement  have 
practically  eliminated  the  grogshop  as  an  institution, 
this  social  boycott  on  drunkenness  and  its  accompani- 
ments becomes  still  more  summary  and  absolute  in  its 
influence. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  rich  have  the  wine  in  their 
cellars.  This  is  true,  but  when,  through  the  refining 
influences  of  superior  material  and  social  conditions, 
the  wine  is  transferred  from  the  saloon  to  the  cellar, 
because  that  institution  is  incompatible  with  the  pre- 


THE  SALOON  RECEDES  AS  THE  HOME  IMPRO  VES.  211 

vailing  culture  and  social  customs,  drunkenness  is 
surely  in  its  last  stages  of  elimination.  When  the 
wine  has  reached  the  cellar  it  is  directly  under  the 
influence  of  the  strongest  social  power  in  existence 
against  its  abuse  or  indiscriminate  use.  The  presence 
of  the  family,  especially  the  children,  and  the  refine- 
ment of  the  home  influences  in  such  a  social  atmos- 
phere, all  directly  tend  to  prevent  its  common  or  ex- 
cessive use.  It  would  be  brought  out  only  on  special 
occasions,  and  dealt  out  with  care,  so  that  under  such 
conditions  drunkenness  must  necessarily  become  al- 
most an  impossibility. 

In  fact,  when  the  material  and  social  conditions  of 
the  masses  have  reached  the  point  where  the  comforts 
and  refinements  of  the  average  laborer's  home  are 
more  attractive  than  those  of  the  saloon,  drunkenness 
will  cease  to  pollute  the  moral  atmosphere  of  the 
community. 

Drunkenness,  like  all  other  social  diseases,  has  its 
tap-root  in  economic  conditions.  Consequently,  any 
attempt  to  abolish  drunkenness  by  sumptuary  legisla- 
tion which  does  not  operate  upon  and  through  the 
industrial  and  social  conditions  of  the  masses  is  neces- 
sarily unsound  and  impracticable. 


Section  II. — Rent^  Profit ^  TaXy  and  Money  Reforms. 

Among  the  second  class  of  propositions  for  promot- 
ing the  industrial  reformation  of  society  are  those 
which  propose  to  improve  the  economic  condition  of 
the  laboring  classes  by  the  arbitrary  abolition  or  manip- 
ulation of  rent,  profits,  interest,  taxes,  etc.  These 
propositions  are   all   based  upon  the  very  erroneous 


212  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

assumption  that  if  rent,  profit,  interest,  and  taxes 
were  arbitrarily  reduced,  wages  would  thereby  be  cor- 
respondingly increased,  which  is  a  fundamental  mis- 
take. If  these  were  all  abolished  to-morrow,  there 
is  no  economic  force  by  which  the  wealth  thus  saved 
would,  for  that  reason^  go  to  the  laborer. 

This  error  arises  from  an  entire  misconception  of  the 
economic  law  of  wages.  It  is  commonly  assumed  that 
wages  are  determined  by  rent,  profits,  etc.,  whereas, 
as  we  have  elsewhere  shown,  the  reverse  is  true,  and 
instead  of  these  determining  wages,  they  are  ultimately 
determined  by  wages — i.e,^  by  the  economic  ability  of 
the  masses  to  consume  wealth,  without  which  neither 
rent,  profit,  nor  interest  would  be  possible.  Wages 
not  being  governed  by  profit  and  rent,  it  is  futile  to 
attempt  to  increase  the  former  by  any  direct  or  arbi- 
trary manipulation  of  the  latter.  Wages  can  only  be 
permanently  increased  by  dealing  with  the  causes  that 
govern  wages,  which,  as  already  shown,  are  entirely 
outside  of  profits,  rent,  interest,  and  taxes. 

Not  that  the  question  of  taxation  is  of  no  impor- 
tance. It  is,  of  course,  an  important  function  of  gov- 
ernment to  see  to  it  that  the  revenues  necessary  for 
the  administration  of  public  affairs  should  be  as  equi- 
tably levied,  as  economically  collected,  and  as  wisely 
disbursed  as  possible.  And  it  is  for  the  best  interest 
of  the  community  that  the  methods  which  will  accom- 
plish this  with  the  least  amount  of  bureaucracy,  favor- 
itism, and  waste  should  be  adopted.  But  all  this 
merely  relates  to  the  details  of  administration,  to  the 
wisdom  or  unwisdom  of  disposing  of  a  very  small  por- 
tion of  the  wealth  at  present  produced.  It  exercises 
no  appreciable  influence  upon  the  total  amount  of 
wealth  produced,  nor  upon  the  income  of  the  laboring 


TRUE  BASIS  OF  PUBLIC  INTEGRITY.  213 

classes,  for  the  simple  reason  that  it  does  not  affect 
the  causes  which  influence  the  production  of  wealth 
and  the  general  rate  of  wages. 

While  a  careful  collection  and  an  honest  and  wise 
disbursement  of  public  funds  is  a  marked  feature  of 
good  government,  the  wise  or  unwise  use  of  a  few 
millions  of  dollars  is  of  no  sort  of  importance  as  com- 
pared with  promoting  the  social  influences  which  tend 
to  increase  the  aggregate  production  of  wealth  and  the 
daily  income  of  the  masses.  Indeed,  the  promotion 
of  the  latter  is  the. only  sure  way  of  securing  the  former. 
Public  integrity  and  the  wise  administration  of  gov- 
ernment can  only  be  permanently  secured  by  elevating 
the  intelligence  and  social  character  of  the  masses, 
upon  which  the  character  of  all  government  finally  de- 
pends. No  government  can  continuously  dissipate 
the  revenues  or  abuse  the  trust  of  an  intelligent,  well- 
informed  people,  and  no  power  can  prevent  profligate 
waste,  public  corruption,  and  maladministration  in  the 
public  affairs  of  a  poor  and  ignorant  people. 

The  same  is  essentially  true  of  money.  It  is  one  of 
the  functions  of  government  to  furnish  a  medium  by 
which  commodities  can  be  easily  exchanged.  It  is 
quite  important  that  this  money  should  be  made  of  a 
material  and  issued  in  such  form  and  quantities  as 
shall  best  suit  the  industrial  and  social  convenience  of 
the  people.  This  should  be  done  on  a  scientific  basis, 
so  that  a  sudden  change  in  the  volume  and  value  of 
the  currency,  to  any  considerable  extent,  could  never 
occur.  Beyond  this  there  is  no  real  economic  im- 
portance to  be  attached  to  the  money  question.  Any 
violent  disturbance  of  prices,  which  a  sudden  change 
in  the  currency  always  involves,  is  invariably  inimical 
to  industrial  interests.     That  it   is  the  duty  of  good 


214  WEALTH  AND   PROGRESS. 

government  to  devise  a  scientific  financial  system  by 
which  an  unvarying  medium  of  exchange  be  continu- 
ously issued,  I  freely  admit,  but  if  such  a  perfect  sys- 
tem of  finance  were  devised  and  universally  adopted 
to-morrow,  it  could  not  possibly  produce  any  impor- 
tant effect  upon  the  general  prosperity  of  the  commu- 
nity, or  upon  the  economic  condition  of  the  laboring 
classes.  No  industrial  or  social  improvement  could 
be  produced  by  any  change  in  the  quantity  or  quality 
of  the  currency,  for  the  obvious  reason  that  money,  as 
such,  having  no  other  function  than  a  medium  of  ex- 
change, sustains  no  important  economic  relation  to 
the  social  forces  which  determine  the  amount  of  wealth 
produced  or  the  amount  of  the  laborer's  income. 

In  fact,  so  far  as  the  inherent  economic  and  social 
influence  of  money  is  concerned,  wages  might  forever 
remain  at  ten  cents  a  day  with  the  most  perfect  cur- 
rency the  world  is  capable  of  devising.  Nothing  can 
permanently  affect  wages  that  does  not  influence  the 
social  character  of  the  laborer,  which  no  system  of 
finance,  as  such,  however  perfect  it  may  be,  is  capable 
of  doing.* 


Section  III.  —  The  Inadequacy  of  Socialistic  Methods, 

The  third  class  of  measures  which  are  proposed  for 
the  industrial  improvement  of  society  are  those  of  a 
socialistic  character,  such  as  state  socialism,  coloniza- 
tion, co-operation,  etc.  These  propositions  are  more 
plausible  in  theory,  but  are  as  futile  in  practice  as 
those  just  considered.    The  fundamental  error  in  these 

*  For  a  more  thorough  discussion  of  the  money  question,  the  reader 
is  referred  to  the  next  volume. 


SOCIALISTIC  METHODS  OF  REFORM.  215 

schemes  is  that  they  are  attempts  to  anticipate  instead 
of  to  promote  social  evolution. 

They  are  proposals  for  the  remodelling  of  society 
on  a  high  plane  of  intelligence  and  equity,  without 
the  first  conditions  upon  which  such  a  society  can  be 
possible.  Like  the  effort  to  play  Hamlet  with  Hamlet 
left  out,  they  are  conspicuous  for  the  absence  of  the 
essential  conditions  upon  which  their  success  depends. 
All  propositions  of  this  nature  are  based  upon  the  idea 
that  not  only  the  political  government,  but  also  the 
industrial  and  commercial  enterprises  should  become 
the  collective  property  and  be  under  the  control  of  the 
collective  management  of  the  community. 

If  the  advocates  of  these  schemes  would  content 
themselves  with  pointing  out  the  fact  that  such  is  the 
goal  toward  which  all  social  development  is  tending^ 
and  were  willing  to  help  to  promote  its  natural  move- 
ment in  that  direction,  there  could  be  little  ground  for 
taking  exception  to  their  position.  Whether  their 
conclusions  as  to  the  goal  of  human  progress  are  cor- 
rect or  not,  if  the  movement  of  society  is  accelerated 
along  the  line  of  its  natural  development,  it  will  surely 
move  in  the  direction  of  its  true  end,  whether  that  be 
the  one  they  have  pointed  to  or  not.  The  important 
function  of  the  social  philosopher  is  not  to  discover 
the  extreme  goal  or  final  terminus  of  human  progress, 
nor  to  decide  what  will  be  the  precise  social  relations 
in  the  highest  possible  state  of  social  development. 
This,  at  best,  must  necessarily  involve  considerable 
doubtful  conjecture.  The  function  of  the  true  philos- 
opher is  to  ascertain  the  laws  by  which  the  move- 
ment of  society  from  the  simple  to  the  complex  is 
governed.  This  being  done,  if  we  put  ourselves  in 
correct  relation  with  those  laws,  whether  that  goal  is 


2i6  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

in  accordance  with  our  more  or  less  fanciful  specula- 
tions or  not,  we  shall  be  sure  to  move  toward  the 
highest  possible  social  eminence  and  perfection. 

But  this  is  precisely  what  the  advocates  of  co-opera- 
tion and  state  socialism  do  not  do.  They  first  satisfy 
themselves  as  to  what  an  ideal  state  of  society  should 
and  would  be,  and  then  instead  of  helping  to  promote 
industrial  and  social  progress  toward  the  point  where 
such  a  state  of  society  could  be  possible,  they  attempt 
to  anticipate  all  necessary  growth  and  preparation,  and 
establish  what  they  regard  as  a  high  state  of  society 
upon  low  industrial  and  social  conditions.  In  other 
words,  they  want  to  arbitrarily  inaugurate  a  high  state 
of  civilization  upon  the  conditions  which  will  barely 
sustain  a  modified  state  of  barbarism  ;  than  which 
nothing  can  be  more  fallacious  and  impracticable. 

A  proposition  for  introducing  an  important  change 
into  social  institutions  is  just  as  unsound,  for  all  prac- 
tical purposes,  if  it  is  incorrect  in  relation  to  time,  as 
if  it  were  incorrect  in  relation  to  principle.  The  first 
and  indispensable  condition  to  the  successful  establish- 
ment of  an  industrial  and  social  democracy  is  intelli- 
gence and  character,  not  only  in  the  leaders,  but  in 
all,  or  nearly  all,  who  participate  in  it,  in  order  to  un- 
derstand and  appreciate  its  principles,  and  harmo- 
niously sustain  its  government  in  accordance  therewith. 
If  intelligence  and  character  is  not  general  among  its 
members,  the  management  and  control  of  affairs  must 
naturally  soon  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  most  capable 
and  successful  members  of  the  community.  And 
these,  in  the  very  nature  of  things,  will  become  the 
governing  and,  therefore,  the  fortunate  and  wealthy 
classes. 

That  this  condition  is  conspicuously  absent  as  yet, 


SOCIALISTIC  INDUSTRY  IMPRACTICABLE.      217 

not  merely  in  the  barbarous  but  in  the  most  civilized 
countries  in  the  world,  is  too  obvious  to  need  stating. 
Not  only  do  the  great  mass  of  the  laboring  classes 
lack  the  material  conditions  and  intellectual  and  social  ; 
character  necessary  to  sustain  a  truly  industrial  co- ^^ 
operative  commonwealth,  but  no  considerable  portion 
of  them  are  equal  to  any  such  an  undertaking.  This 
is  demonstrated  by  the  almost  universal  failure  of  in- 
dustrial co-operative  undertakings.  It  should  also  be 
remembered  that  these  experiments  have  been  under- 
taken by  the  most  intelligent  and  enthusiastic  portions 
of  the  community. 

If  we  examine  the  history  of  co-operative  or  social- 
istic enterprises  we  shall  find  that  their  failure  or  suc- 
cess has  been  proportionate  to  the  simplicity  or  com- 
plexity of  their  undertaking.  Thus,  even  in  Eng- 
land, where  co-operative  enterprises  have  reached  their 
highest  success,  all  attempts  to  establish  a  purely 
democratic  form  of  industrial,  not  to  say  social,  co- 
operation have  completely  failed.  There  is  scarcely  a 
single  industrial  enterprise  in  Europe  or  this  country 
that  was  started  on  the  democratic  plan  which,  in  less 
than  twenty  years,  and  generally  in  a  quarter  of  that 
time,  has  not  been  forced  to  assume  the  aristocratic — 
**  property  qualification" — mode  of  government,  or  go 
out  of  existence.  In  other  words,  they  all  failed  a^j 
democratic  industrial  undertakings,  and  either  became/ 
joint-stock  companies  or  disappeared  altogether. 

Another  and  less  democratic  and  less  complex  form 
of  productive  co-operation,  known  as  **  profit-sharing," 
has  been  more  widely  adopted,  and  has  been  somewhat 
more  successful.  That  is  to  say,  the  experiments  have 
lasted  longer  in  most  cases  where  rich  employers,  while 
keeping  the  management  of  the  business  in  their  own 
II 


2i8  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

hands,  have  divided  a  portion  of  the  profits  among 
their  employes,  than  in  cases  of  purely  democratic  co- 
operation, where  the  laborers  shared  equally  in  the 
control  of  the  business  as  well  as  in  the  profits  accru- 
ing from  it.  But  while  the  experiments  of  profit- 
sharing  have  been  more  general  and  continuous  than 
those  of  industrial  co-operation,  pure  and  simple,  they 
also  have,  with  a  few  exceptions,  proved  failures.  The 
few  successes  like  Leclaire,  in  Paris,  and  Godin's  Fam- 
ilistere,  at  Guise,  stand  almost  alone  amid  the  numer- 
ous failures  along  this  line,  not  only  on  the  continent, 
but  in  England  and  this  country. 

Furthermore,  the  success  of  these  few,  as  the  history 
and  methods  of  the  enterprises  clearly  show,  is  mainly 
due  to  the  character  and  personnel  of  the  individual 
capitalists  undertaking  them. 

Again,  profit-sharing  is  impracticable  as  a  general 
scheme,  because  it  is  only  the  most  successful  or  ad- 
vantageously situated  employers  "^  who  have  any  con- 
siderable amount  of  profits  to  divide.  A  large  propor- 
tion of  employers,  instead  of  having  any  large  amount 
to  divide  among  the  laborers  as  profits,  as  is  generally 
supposed,  are  struggling  on  the  verge  of  insolvency. 
If,  by  any  force  of  law  or  custom,  profit-sharing  should 
become  general,  so  that  all  employers  were  virtually 
compelled  to  adopt  it,  one  of  two  things  would  neces- 
sarily follow — viz.^  either  the  general  rate  of  stipulated 
wages  would  fall  or  the  price  of  products  would  rise  in 
the  same  ratio,  and  the  actual  income  of  the  laborer 
would,  in  the  long  run,  be  practically  the  same.     In- 

*  Such,  t.g.,  as  those  who  have  large  capital,  most  improved  ma- 
chinery, situated  near  to  the  general  market,  or  have  some  other 
monopolistic  advantage  over  the  bulk  of  those  engaged  in  the  business. 


INADEQUACY  OF  PROFIT-SHARING.  219 

deed,  it  is  impossible  that  it  should  be  otherwise,  for 
the  obvious  reason  that  the  capitalist  can  only  divide 
profits  when  he  has  profits  to  divide,  which  a  large 
portion  of  employers  have  not. 

Profits  can  be  increased  only  in  one  of  two  ways  : 
either  by  raising  prices  or  reducing  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction. A  rise  of  prices  would  be  a  virtual  reduction 
of  wages,  and  any  division  of  profits  by  such  means 
would  be  simply  **  taking  away  with  one  hand  in  order 
to  give  with  the  other."  The  cost  of  production  can 
only  be  permanently  reduced  by  the  use  of  large  cap- 
itals or  labor-saving  appliances,  which  implies  a  larger 
aggregate  production,  and,  consequently,  an  increase 
in  the  general  consumption  of  wealth.  And  this,  as 
we  have  fully  explained  elsewhere,*  is  governed  by  the 
standard  of  living  or  social  character  of  the  masses, 
which  no  amount  of  profit-sharing  can  materially  affect. 
In  fact,  whatever  would  enable  the  employer  to  give 
the  laborer  a  bonus  in  the  form  of  profits  would  enable 
him  to  raise  wages,  and,  for  the  same  reason,  what- 
ever would  make  it  necessary  to  reduce  wages  would 
render  it  impossible  to  divide  profits. 

It  is  a  law  in  economics,  which  all  industrial  history 
proves,  that  the  income  of  the  laborer  is  proportionate 
to  his  social  wants  ;  and  if  it  is  derived  from  one  or 
from  several  sources  it  will  ultimately  be  substantially 
the  same.  Accordingly,  when  the  English  laborer  re- 
ceived parish  allowance  in  addition  to  his  wages,  his 
income  from  both  sources  was  no  greater  than  from 
wages  alone,  after  the  former  was  abolished.  And  so 
it  is  to-day.  Where  the  laborers  have  perquisites, 
such  as  the  privilege  to  keep  a  cow,  small  allotments 


*  Chapter  II.,  Part  I. 


2  20  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

of  land,  etc.,  in  addition  to  their  wages,  the  rate  of 
wages  is  correspondingly  lower  than  where  their  whole 
income  consists  of  money.  It  is  notorious  that  in 
those  industries  where  the  income  of  the  laborer's 
family  includes  the  earnings  of  the  wife  or  children, 
the  wages  of  the  man  are,  on  the  average,  proportion- 
ately lower  than  in  those  where  the  sustenance  of  the 
family  depends  entirely  upon  his  wages.*  For  the 
same  reason,  if  the  income  of  the  laborer  was  made  up 
of  wages  and  profits,  ultimately  the  two  would  be  no 
more  than  wages  alone. 

If  we  turn  from  productive  to  what  is  commonly 
called  distributive  co-operation,  where  the  business  is 
simpler  and  more  direct,  where  the  industrial  subtle- 
ties and  commercial  fibres  are  less  intricate  and  com- 
plex, where  the  business  is  all  done  with  the  members, 
and,  therefore,  a  little  bad  judgment  is  less  likely  to 
prove  disastrous,  a  much  larger  per  cent  of  successes 
is  to  be  found.  And  among  these,  much  the  largest 
portion  of  successful  undertakings  is  to  be  found  in 
the  retail  grocery  trade,  where  the  variation  of  prices, 
qualities,  and  styles  of  goods  is  at  the  minimum,  and, 
consequently,  where  the  smallest  possible  amount  of 
business  skill,  sagacity  and  shrewd  financiering  is 
necessary.  Again,  if  we  examine  the  associations  of  the 
laboring  classes,  such  as  trades  unions,  where  still  less 
of  these  qualities  of  character  are  required,  and  where 
the  whole  purpose  of  the  association  is  centred  upon 
one  or  two  simple,  though  important,  objects,  such  as 

*  "  For  the  same  reason  it  is  found  that,  ceteris  paribus^  those 
trades  are  generally  the  worst  paid  in  which  the  wife  and  children  of 
the  artisan  aid  in  the  work." — MilVs  ^^  Principles  of  Political  Econ- 
omy,'* Book  II.,  ch.  14,  §  4,  p.  488.  See  also  Chapter  VII.,  Part  II., 
pp.  167-175. 


DISTRIBUTIVE  CO-OPERATION.  221 

watching  for  the  timely  moment  to  demand  an  in- 
crease of  wages,  a  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor,  or 
other  direct  improvements  in  their  industrial  condi- 
tions, the  undertakings  are  far  more  numerous  and  the 
percentage  of  successes  is  much  greater.  All  experi- 
ence thus  shows  that  industrial  co-operation  has  failed 
just  in  proportion  as  the  higher  qualities  of  character 
became  necessary  to  its  success 

It  may  be  urged  that  this  is  no  argument  against 
co-operation,  per  se,  because  all  the  failures  are  due  to 
the  inexperience  and  incapacity  of  those  undertaking 
them,  and  not  to  the  principle  itself.  And  the  fact 
that  it  is  feasible  in  a  few  cases  proves  that  it  could  be 
a  universal  success,  if  the  people  were  sufficiently 
intelligent  to  carry  it  out.  This  may  all  be  true,  but 
its  universal  failure  conclusively  demonstrates  that 
this  indispensable  condition  is  conspicuously  wanting 
among  the  great  mass  of  the  laboring  classes  to-day. 
Therefore,  co-operation,  whatever  would  be  its  merits 
in  a  more  highly  developed  state  of  society,  as  a  means 
of  abolishing  the  evils  arising  from  our  present  indus- 
trial and  social  conditions,  must  be  practically  inoper- 
ative and  hopelessly  inadequate. 

"Yes,"  replies  the  advocate  of  state  socialism, 
*'  but  that  does  not  apply  to  our  proposition.  What 
we  ask  for  is  not  that  the  most  intelligent  and  capable 
members  of  the  community  should  band  themselves 
together  in  order  to  improve  their  own  condition,  re- 
gardless of  that  of  those  below  them.  That  is  only 
what  capitalistic  corporations  are  doing,  which  tends 
to  increase  rather  than  lessen  the  burdens  of  the 
poorest  and  weakest  classes.  What  we  want,"  he 
adds,  '*  is  that  all  industrial  co-operation  shall  be 
undertaken  by  the  state  for  the  whole  people.    All  the 


22  2  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

means  of  production,  in  the  phrase  of  Marx,  should 
be  in  the  hands  of  the  government."  And,  as  a 
sample  of  the  marvellous  powers  of  state  socialism, 
we  are  referred  to  the  phenomenal  success  of  the  gov- 
ernmental management  of  the  Post-Office. 

Well,  let  us  see.  In  the  first  place,  the  Post-Office 
Department  has  not  been  a  financial  success — that  is 
to  say,  it  has  not  been  self-sustaining,  and  its  deficien- 
cies have  had  to  be  made  up  from  time  to  time  out  of 
the  general  taxes.  If  any  private  enterprise  was  in 
that  condition,  instead  of  being  called  a  great  success, 
it  would  be  regarded  as  bankrupt.  But,  it  may  be 
asked,  could  letters  be  sent  across  the  continent  for 
two  cents  by  private  enterprise  ?  Certainly  !  Why 
not  ?  What  does  the  government  do  toward  making 
it  possible  to  send  a  letter  three  thousand  miles  for 
two  cents  ?  Nothing,  positively  nothing !  All  the 
government  does  in  the  mail  service  is  to  collect,  as- 
sort, stamp,  and  bag  the  outgoing  and  deliver  the  in- 
coming letters,  give  out  and  receive  money-orders,  and 
render  a  correct  account  of  the  business  done.  All  of 
this  is  purely  clerical  work,  which,  after  being  once 
systematized,  is  simple  and  even  monotonous.  There 
is  nothing  in  it  which  calls  for  exceptional  skill  or 
rare  business  capacity,  such  as  is  required  to  success- 
fully manage  large  business  enterprises,  with  their 
close  competition  and  ever-varying  subtleties  and 
complications,  where  a  slight  error  of  judgment  might 
involve  a  loss  of  thousands  of  dollars,  and  perhaps 
cause  the  ruin  of  many  persons.  When  the  letter-bags 
leave  the  door  of  the  Post-Office  to  start  on  their  flying 
trip  across  the  continent,  they  enter  into  the  hands  of 
private  enterprise.  It  is  the  great  railroads  and  steam- 
ship companies  that  make  it  possible  for  the  letter  to 


THE  POST-OFFICE  AS  A  PUBLIC  ENTERPRISE.  223 

go  three  thousand  miles  for  two  cents.  The  cheap 
methods  of  travel  and  transportation  which  carry  the 
mails  are  in  no  way  due  to  state  influence,  but  en- 
tirely to  private  enterprise.  In  fact,  they  are  the  nat- 
ural outcome  of  the  industrial  and  social  progress  of 
the  community. 

Thus  it  is  seen  that  all  the  important  work  in  the 
cheap  and  rapid  transmission  of  the  mails  is  due  to  the 
social  development  of  the  people  under  the  impetus 
and  control  of  private  enterprise  ;  and  that  portion  of 
the  mail  service  which  is  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the 
state,  unlike  all  private  enterprises  of  a  similar  char- 
acter, such  as  express  companies,  etc.,  is  a  complete 
monopoly,  being  entirely  free  from  com.petition,  and 
almost  free  from  responsibility  ;  at  least  so  far  as  its 
relation  to  the  individual  is  concerned.  If  I  send  a 
package  through  the  United  States  mail,  and  it  is 
lost,  I  have  no  redress,  whereas  if  I  send  it  by  any  ex- 
press company  they  are  responsible  to  me  for  the  full 
value  I  set  upon  it  when  it  is  delivered  to  them. 
And  where  the  railroads  are  owned  or  the  tariffs  con- 
trolled by  the  state,  as  on  the  continent,  they  are 
more  expensive,  less  efficient,  and  the  rates  of  trans- 
portation are  higher  and  the  wages  of  labor  are  much 
lower  than  in  this  country,  where  they  are  all  managed 
by  private  enterprise. 

Manifestly,  then,  there  is  nothing  connected  with  the 
management  of  the  Post-Office  or  in  the  experience 
of  governmental  control  of  railroads  to  sustain  the 
claim  that  state  management  of  industries,  especially 
in  the  more  complex  branches  of  production,  is  neces- 
sarily superior  or  even  equal  to  those  of  private  enter- 
prise. Indeed,  such  a  supposition  is  illogical  and  con- 
trary to  all  known  facts.     If  the  most  select  and  en- 


2  24  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

lightened  members  of  the  community  lack  the  neces- 
sary intelligence  to  sustain  co-operative  or  socialistic 
enterprises,  except  of  the  most  simple  character, 
what  right  have  we  to  assume  that  the  whole  com- 
munity, with  a  much  lower  average  intelligence,  could 
more  successfully  manage  the  most  complex  and  diffi- 
cult economic  undertakings  ?     It  is  simply  absurd. 

To  this  it  may  be  replied  that  if  the  industries  of  the 
country  were  in  the  hands  of  the  state,  the  same  class 
of  persons  would  have  charge  of  them  as  now,  the 
only  difference  being  that  they  would  then  be  man- 
agers for  the  people  instead  of  their  being  owners  of 
the  plant,  and  managers  for  themselves,  as  at  present. 
But  there  is  no  reason  to  believe,  and  every  reason  to 
disbelieve,  that  the  same  class  of  business  capacity  and 
enterprise  which  now  prevails  in  economic  affairs 
would  be  put  in  charge  under  state  socialism  to-day. 
In  fact,  with  the  present  state  of  average  intelligence, 
such  a  result  would  be  practically  impossible.  De- 
mocracy seldom  elects  the  very  best  capacity  to  any 
office  ;  nor,  in  the  nature  of  things,  can  that  be  ex- 
pected. Socialism,  which  means  the  broadest  kind  of 
democracy,  must  necessarily  be  governed  by  represen- 
tation through  popular  election  and  not  by  limited  or 
qualified  selection.  By  this  means  public  officers  can- 
not be  drawn  from  the  most  capable  nor  from  the 
most  incapable  classes.  The  laborers  would  not  vote 
for  a  Vanderbilt,  Gould,  or  a  Field  for  railroad  man- 
agers, although  they  are  the  most  competent  men  on 
the  continent  for  the  business  ;  nor  could  an  east-side 
laborer  obtain  the  votes  of  Fifth  Avenue  for  any  pub- 
lic position.  In  order  to  obtain  the  popular  vote  in  a 
broad  democracy,  the  representative  must  reflect  in 
the  main  the  ideas,  capacity,  and  character  of  the  great 


PUBLIC  OFFICIALS  SELDOM  EXPERTS.  225 

mean  average  of  the  community,  which  will  always  be 
better  than  the  poorest,  and  considerably  inferior  to 
the  best. 

This  explains  why  our  legislative  and  executive 
offices,  with  a  few  rare  exceptions,  are  always  filled  by 
men  of  the  most  commonplace  type,  the  highest  order 
of  executive  and  enterprising  capacity  being  devoted 
to  trade  and  industry.  Consequently,  we  find  public 
business  is  conducted  with  notoriously  less  economy 
and  ability  than  are  private  enterprises. 

Thus,  from  whatever  point  of  view  we  consider  in- 
dustrial co-operation  or  state  socialism,  we  find  them 
wholly  inadequate  as  a  means  of  reforming  the  present 
industrial  and  social  conditions.  They  must  neces- 
sarily fail  as  a  means  toward  establishing  an  ideal  social 
state,  because  they  are  the  very  ideal  state  (so  claimed) 
which  we  need  the  means  to  establish.  It  is  because 
**  industrial  co-operation,"  **  association,"  or  **  social- 
ism" implies  a  high  social  state  that  theyrequire  a 
high  grade  of  intellectual  and  social  development  in 
the  people  in  order  to  sustain  them.  It  is  this  very 
weakness  and  incapacity  among  the  laboring  classes, 
arising  from  their  poverty  and  its  social  disadvantage, 
so  fatal  to  the  establishment  of  "  industrial  associa- 
tion," which  makes  industrial  reformation  necessary. 
Therefore,  while  "  mutual  association"  or  *'  co-opera- 
tion" may  prove  to  be  the  most  equitable,  convenient, 
and  harmonious  industrial  system  to  adopt  when  suffi- 
cient progress  has  been  made  to  sustain  it,  manifestly 
it  can  never  be  successfully  adopted  as  a  means  to 
that  end.    • 

There  is  another  objection  to  this  class  of  schemes 
which  is  fatal  to  them  as  a  means  of  reforming  society, 
and  it  applies  with  equal  force  to  profit-sharing,  land 


226  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

nationalization,  co-operation,  and  all  industrial  phases 
of  socialism,  as  well  as  to  efforts  to  arbitrarily  manip- 
ulate interest,  profits,  rents,  wages,  etc.  It  is  that 
they  are  efforts  to  enrich  one  class  at  the  expense  of 
another,  which  is  wholly  uneconomic.  Nothing  can 
permanently  improve  the  economic  condition  of  one 
class  in  any  industrial  community  which  does  not  tend 
to  improve  that  of  all  classes.  No  change,  however 
equitable,  in  the  distribution  of  the  wealth  now  being 
daily  produced  could  make  any  important  difference 
in  the  well-being  of  the  masses.  There  is  nothing 
more  delusive  than  the  rose-colored  dreams  about  the 
social  advantages  that  would  result  from  transferring 
the  profits,  by  means  of  profit-sharing,  co-operation, 
etc.,  from  the  capitalist  to  the  laborer.  The  advo- 
cates of  these  propositions,  which  have  included  some 
of  the  most  careful  economists,  both  in  England  and 
on  the  continent,  as  well  as  in  this  country,  appear  to 
be  unwittingly  captivated  by  the  delusive  coloring  of 
their  own  picture.  This  delusion  arises  partly  from 
the  mistake  of  estimating  the  amount  capable  of  being 
divided  upon  the  basis  of  the  profits  of  the  most  suc- 
cessful enterprises,  which  constitute  but  a  very  small 
per  cent  of  the  employing  class.  It  would  be  just  as 
correct  to  estimate  the  profits  of  all  newspaper  enter- 
prises on  the  basis  of  the  earnings  of  the  New  York 
**  Herald,"  "  World,"  and  "Sun,"  or  all  railroads  upon 
that  of  those  of  Vanderbilt  and  Gould  ;  and  it  is  partly 
due  to  the  fact  of  viewing  the  amount  that  can  be  thus 
divided  in  the  aggregate,  instead  of  in  the  weekly 
amount  it  would  give  to  each  laborer. 

We  have  occasionally  heard  of  ten,  twenty,  and 
even  fifty  thousand  dollars  being  divided  among  the 
laborers  by  some  exceptionally  fortunate  experiments 


THE  SOUND  SENSE  OF  THE  TRADES  UNIONISTS.  227 

at  profit-sharing  and  other  forms  of  co-operation. 
These  amounts  have  an  imposing  appearance  to  the 
abstract  theorist,  who  sees  them  only  in  the  aggregate. 
It  has  no  such  rose-colored  seeming  to  the  laborer, 
however.  He  is  interested  not  so  much  in  that  large- 
sounding  aggregate  as  he  is  in  the  portion  of  it  which 
will  reach  him,  and  that,  from  such  sources,  is  always 
very  small,  seldom  amounting  to  more  than  a  few 
cents  a  week.  Suppose  it  should  be  announced  that, 
in  1887,  the  employing  classes  in  this  country  would 
divide  one  hundred  million  dollars  among  the  laborers. 
Imposing  as  that  amount  may  seem  in  the  aggregate, 
and  important  as  it  might  be  in  reducing  the  cost  of 
commodities  if  employed  as  capital  in  improved  meth- 
ods of  production,  it  would  be  of  very  little  impor- 
tance to  the  laborer,  as  it  would  give  him  less  than 
twenty  cents  a  week,  or  about  three  cents  a  day,  equal 
only  to  a  rise  of  about  two  per  cent  in  wages.  And 
because  the  laborer  does  not  evince  a  disposition  to 
abandon  his  trades  union  and  forego  all  efforts  to  in- 
crease his  wages,  and  otherwise  improve  his  condition, 
for  the  privilege  of  participating  in  the  present  profits 
at  the  rate  of  two  or  three  cents  a  day,  he  is  berated 
as  an  economic  blockhead.  Even  Professor  Jevons, 
one  of  England's  most  scientific  economists,  took  this 
view.  In  his  chapter  on  profit-sharing*  he  cites  the  ex- 
periment of  the  Briggs  Brothers,  which  was  one  of  the 
most  successful  of  its  kind  in  England.  He  shows 
that  the  laborers  received  in  profits  from  two  to  five 
pounds  a  year,  according  to  their  wages,  and  still  they 
finally  went  on  strike,  and  broke  up  that  beautiful  ar- 
rangement. (?)    If  we  look  at  the  case  from  the  laborer's 

*  "  Problems  of  Social  Reform." 


'-^ 


WEALTH-  AND  PROGRESS. 

.cc/ndpoint,  which  is  the  true  economic  view,  it  ap- 
pears quite  different.  While  a  very  few  of  the  highest- 
paid  employes  received  five  pounds  (twenty-four  dol- 
lars), the  bulk  of  them  did  not  get  more  than  three 
pounds  (fourteen  dollars  and  forty  cents).  But  sup- 
pose they  received  four  pounds — which  they  seldom 
did,  more  frequently  getting  less  than  half  that 
amount — that  would  be  less  than  six  cents  a  day. 
Thus  while  the  distribution  of  that  amount  to  each 
employe  may  be  regarded  as  an  exceptionally  gen- 
erous act  on  the  part  of  the  Briggs  Brothers,  eco- 
nomically it  was  a  matter  of  small  moment  to  the 
laborer,  being  about  one-third  less  than  a  permanent 
advance  of  ten  per  cent  in  his  wages  would  have  given 
him.  The  same  is  true  of  the  nationalization  of  the 
land.* 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the  laborers,  who, 
though  they  have  never  entertained  very  sound  theories 
on  economics,  have  always  displayed  a  much  greater 
degree  of  practical  common-sense  in  regard  to  indus- 
trial affairs  than  most  social  theorists,  should  prefer  to 
rely  upon  the  traditional  means  of  bringing  about  an 
increase  in  their  wages.  The  failure  of  this  and  hun- 
dreds of  other  similar  experiments  are  not  due  to  a 
lack  of  mutual  good  feeling  between  the  employer  and 
employed,  as  is  so  often  affirmed,  nor  lack  of  gener- 
osity and  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  the  capitalist,  but  it 
is  due  to  the  economic  impossibility  of  attaining  the 
desired  end  by  such  means.  Indeed,  the  material 
condition  of  the  masses  can  never  be  appreciably  im- 
proved by  any  possible  amount  of  generosity  or  sacri- 
fice on  the  part  of  the  few.  The  poverty  of  the  laborer 
is  not  due  to  the  inequitable  distribution  of  the  pres- 
*  See  Introduction,  p.  5. 


MORE  WEALTH  PER  CAPITA  THE  ONLY  REMEDY.  229 

ent  wealth,  but  to  the  fact  that  the  aggregate  wealth 
produced  is  too  small.  In  fact,  it  is  a  universal  law 
in  economics,*  that  the  greater  the  aggregate  amount 
of  wealth  produced  per  capita  in  any  community,  the 
more  equitable  its  distribution. 

It  is  equally  true  that  there  are  no  economic  means 
by  which  the  material  condition  of  the  masses  can  be 
permanently  improved  which  do  not  tend  to  increase 
the  aggregate  production  of  wealth  per  capita.  And 
this,  as  we  have  repeatedly  shown,  can  only  be  brought 
about  by  increasing  the  influences  that  develop  the 
social  wants  and  economic  demands  of  the  masses. 
The  first  and  indispensable  condition  for  the  perma- 
nent development  of  character  is  increased  social  op~ 
portunitieSy  which  is  precisely  what  the  class  of  prop- 
ositions we  have  been  considering  does  not  tend  to 
furnish. 

*  See  chapter  on  Profit,  Vol.  II. 


CHAPTER   II. 

HOW    TO    ENLARGE    THE    SOCIAL    OPPORTUNITIES    OF 
•  THE   MASSES. 

In  the  foregoing  chapters  we  have  seen  that  indus- 
trial, social,  and  political  progress  primarily  depends 
upon  the  social  character  of  the  laboring  classes. 
They  constitute  what  Lasselle  tritely  termed  "the 
fourth  estate,**  whose  well-being  underlies  and  in- 
cludes that  of  the  whole  community.  It  is  upon  their 
consumption,  as  determined  by  their  habits  and  char- 
acter, that  all  economic  movement  in  the  production 
land  distribution  of  wealth  depends  ;  and  it  is  by  their 
^character,  as  mainly  resulting  from  their  social  oppor- 
tunities, that  the  progress  of  civilization  is  ultimately 
determined. 

The  question,  therefore,  for  the  science  of  social 
economics  to  solve,  is  not  how  to  abolish  rent,  how  to 
reduce  profit,  prohibit  interest,  regulate  the  currency, 
diminish  taxation,  manipulate  tariffs,  control  liquor 
traffic,  etc.,  but  how  it  is  to  enlarge  the  social  oppor- 
tunities of  the  masses.  Let  this  question  be  once 
clearly  settled,  and  all  such  minor  issues,  which  are 
more  the  consequence  than  the  cause  of  the  laborer*s 
social  condition,  will  as  surely  be  economically  solved 
as  that  savagery  recedes  before  advancing  civilization. 

But  before  a  satisfactory  answer  to  the  above  ques- 
tion can  be  given,  it  is  necessary  to  understand  what 
constitutes  social  opportunity.     In  the  sense  that  the 


SOCIAL   OPPORTUNITY  DEFINED.  231 

expression  is  here  used,  opportunity,  like  freedom, 
does  not  consist  of  the  mere  absence  of  legal  or  arbi- 
trary limitations.  A  man  is  not  free  to  go  and  to  do, 
simply  because  statute  law  does  not  forbid  him,  nor 
even  by  virtue  of  its  expressed  permission  to  do  so. 
The  man  whose  livelihood  depends  upon  the  will  of 
another  has  no  more  freedom  than  if  he  were  bound 
by  statutory  enactment.  Whoever  controls  a  man's 
living  can  control  his  liberty.  -  To  be  restricted,  by 
whatever  means,  to  choosing  between  obedience  to 
the  will  of  another  and  starvation,  is  not  freedom. 
The  worst  form  of  chattel  slavery  that  ever  existed 
could  not  prohibit  the  slave  from  choosing  between 
obedience  and  death.  The  freedotn  to  do  implies  not 
only  the  right,  but  also  the  power  to  do.  To  simply 
remove  imposed  restrictions,  to  make  access  to  certain 
places  and  things  legally  possible,  is  not  necessarily 
creating  opportunity.  In  India  both  law  and  caste 
forbid  social  intercourse  between  the  sudras  and  Brah- 
mins, but  the  absence  of  these  conditions  in  China 
does  not  constitute  an  opportunity  for  social  inter- 
course in  that  country.  The  fact  that  there  are  no 
class  distinctions  in  our  educational  institutions  does 
not  constitute  an  opportunity  for  the  masses  to  receive 
a  college  education.  It  would  be  just  as  correct  to 
say  that  every  citizen  has  an  opportunity  to  be  Presi- 
dent of  the  iJnited  States,  because  there  is  no  law  for- 
bidding it. 

"  Social  opportunity  maybe  defined  as  contact  with  an 
increasing  variety  of  social  influences,  and  this  will  be 
effectual  in  proportion  as  it  becomes  general,  which,  in 
turn,  will  entirely  depend  upon  the  incentives  for  bring- 
ing it  about.  The  mere  authoritative  permission  or 
legal  right  of  the  masses  to  travel,  mingle  with  refined 


232  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

society,  to  acquire  education  and  general  culture,  does 
not  necessarily  constitute  an  adequate  motive  or  incen- 
tive for  them  to  put  forth  the  necessary  effort  to  obtain 
such  objects.  The  amount  of  effort  devoted  to  the  ac- 
complishment of  any  object  is  governed  by  the  inten- 
sity of  the  desire  to  be  gratified,  and  the  intensity 
of  the  desire  is  proportionate  to  the  extent  of  the  con- 
tact with  the  influences  which  stimulate  it. 

Therefore,  as  contact  with  more  complex  environ- 
ment involves  additional  effort,  and  the  expenditure 
of  effort  is  governed  by  the  desire,  it  follows  that 
contact  with  new  social  influences  (opportunity)  can 
only  become  frequent  and  general  according  as  they 
arise  from  efforts  devoted  to  the  gratification  of  exist- 
ing wants  and  desires.*  In  other  words,  nothing  but 
the  force  of  present  desires  can  sustain  the  effort  neces- 
sary to  encounter  the  pressure  of  new  and  more  com- 
plex environment.  The  only  natural  means,  there- 
fore, by  which  the  laborer's  opportunities  can  be  en- 
larged is  through  increasing  his  economic  necessity  for 
more  frequent  contact  with  an  increasingly  differenti- 
ated social  environment.  In  other  words,  to  auto- 
matically increase  the  complexity  of  his  social  relations. 

Here,  then,  is  the  economic  fulcrum  upon  which 
the  lever  of  statesmanship  must  be  placed,  in  order  to 
effectually  raise  the  industrial  and  social  condition  of 
the  masses.  No  change  of  political  institutions  or  in- 
dustrial conditions  which  is  not  based  upon  this  prin- 
ciple can  produce  any  permanent  improvement  in  the 
economic  and  social  condition  of  the  laboring  classes. 
Therefore,  in  dealing  with  the  social  problem,  the  im- 

*  "  We  teach  not  by  lessons,  but  by  going  about  our  business."— 
Emerson, 


THE    TRUE  BASIS  FOR   SOCIAL   REFORM.         233 

portant  question  for  the  statesman  to  ask  is,  What 
poh'tical,  industrial,  or  social  change,  if  any,  will  natu- 
rally call  into  operation  the  forces  that  will  uncon- 
sciously and  automatically  differentiate  the  higher 
social  relations  of  the  industrial  classes.  According  as 
any  change,  of  whatever  nature,  tends  to  do  this,  will 
it  tend  to  develop  the  laborer's  character — increase  his 
wants — raise  his  standard  of  living — advance  his  wages 
— increase  the  consumption  and  production  of  wealth 
— dispel  industrial  depressions,  and  promote  the  pros- 
perity and  progress  of  the  community.  But  while  no 
measure  can  be  efficacious  in  improving  the  laborer's 
condition  in  any  country  or  state  of  society  which  does 
not  operate  upon  and  through  his  industrial  and  social 
environment,  it  does  not  follow  that  the  particular 
change  which  would  most  effectually  tend  to  increase 
the  social  opportunities  of  the  masses  under  one  set 
of  industrial  conditions  would  necessarily  do  so  under  all 
industrial  conditions.  For  instance,  what  would  tend 
to  enlarge  the  facilities  and  increase  the  incentives  for 
more  complex  social  relations  among  the  laborers  of 
America,  England,  or  in  the  more  advanced  conti- 
nental countries,  might  prove  inoperative  or  even  in- 
jurious to  the  Patagonian,  the  Jamaica  negro,  or  the 
mass  of  laborers  in  Asia,  Africa,  and  South  America. 
For  while  the  general  law  governing  economic  and 
social  evolution  is  universally  the  same,  the  special 
measures  necessary  to  accelerate  its  movement  may 
vary  according  to  the  existing  industrial  and  social 
conditions  to  which  it  is  to  be  applied. 

The  industrial  system  with  which  we  are  at  present 
concerned  is  the  wages  system.  Therefore,  in  consider- 
ing the  question.  How  can  the  opportunities  of  the 
masses  be  enlarged  ?  we  must  always  be  understood 


234  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS 

to  mean  the  masses  in  wages-paying  countries,  espe- 
cially in  those  where  the  division  of  labor  and  the  use 
of  machinery  most  generally  prevails. 

It  is  important  at  the  outset  to  recognize  the  fact, 
which  we  have  so  often  emphasized,  that  consumption 
is  the  economic  basis  of  production,  and  that  the 
laborer  is  as  important  a  factor  in  the  one  as  he  is  in 
the  other.  This  being  the  case,  it  follows  that  the  de- 
velopment of  the  laborer's  capacity  to  consume  wealth 
is  as  important  economically,  not  only  for  his  own 
interest,  but  for  that  of  the  capitalist  and  the  com- 
munity, as  it  is  to  increase  his  power  to  produce. 

The  laborer's  ability  to  produce  is  derived  from  the 
influence  of  a  very  different  set  of  circumstances  than 
those  which  develop  his  capacity  to  consume.  His 
ability  to  produce,  which  depends  upon  the  skill  and 
dexterity  with  which  he  can  manipulate  the  material  and 
implements  for  producing  commodities,  is  the  result  of 
frequent  contact  with  the  means  and  conditions  of 
production.  His  ability  to  consume,  which  consists  of 
his  wants,  habits,  and  character,  is  the  effect  of  fre- 
quent contact  with  an  increasing  variety  of  social  in- 
fluences. 

Now,  so  long  as  nearly  all  the  laborer's  time  not  occu- 
pied in  eating  and  sleeping  is  devoted  to  the  former,  as 
at  present,  no  commensurate  development  of  the  latter 
is  possible.  Therefore,  the  first  condition  for  increasing 
the  opportunity  of  the  masses  to  develop  their  social 
character,  and  thereby  increase  their  natural  capacity 
to  consume  wealth,  commensurate  with  their  power  to 
produce  it,  is  more  leisure.  By  leisure,  however,  we 
do  not  mean  merely  unoccupied  time.  Enforced  idle- 
ness is  unoccupied  time,  but  it  is  not  leisure.  The 
masses,  the  world  over,  have  a  great  deal  of  unoccu- 


LEISURE  BXPLAINED,  235 

pied  time,  but  it  is  mainly  in  the  form  of  idleness, 
and  not  that  of  leisure.  Though  idleness  and  leisure 
are  both  unoccupied  time,  the  economic  and  social  in- 
fluence of  the  one  is  directly  opposite  to  that  of  the 
other.  Idleness  tends  to  impoverish,  dwarf  and  de- 
grade, while  leisure  tends  to  enrich,  develop,  and 
elevate  character.  It  is  very  important,  therefore,  to 
distinguish  clearly  between  leisure  and  idleness.  Nor 
is  this  difficult  to  do  if  we  observe  their  essential  char- 
acteristics. 

As  much  of  the  argument  in  the  following  pages  will 
be  devoted  to  a  consideration  of  propositions  for  the 
promotion  of  social  progress  through  increasing  the 
leisure  of  the  working  classes  and  reducing  their  idle- 
ness, it  may  be  well  to  digress  a  moment,  in  order  to 
define  more  clearly  the  meaning  of  the  terms  leisure 
and  idleness  as  they  are  here  employed. 

Whether  unemployed  time  will  become  leisure  or 
idleness  entirely  depends  upon  the  circumstances  under 
which  it  occurs.  There  are  two  conditions  necessary 
to  render  unemployed  time  leisure  :  (i)  It  must  be 
time  that  is  not  necessary  to  obtain  a  living,  and  (2)  it 
must  not  be  in  excess  of  the  capacity  to  utilize  it  to 
social  advantage.  Leisure,  therefore,  may  be  defined 
as  unemployed  time  capable  of  being  devoted  to  in- 
dustrial and  social,  and,  therefore,  intellectual  and 
moral,  improvement.  On  the  other  hand,  all  unem- 
ployed time  which  lessens  the  power  to  obtain  a  living, 
or  which,  for  whatever  cause,  cannot  be  appropriated 
to  social  advancement,  is  idleness^  and  is  inimical  to 
progress.  Idleness,  however,  may  be  properly  divided 
into  two  kinds,  natural  idleness  and  enforced  idleness. 
The  former  is  unemployed  time,  the  use  of  which  is 
not  necessary  to  obtain  a  living,  but  which  cannot. 


236  WEALTH  AJSK)  PROGRESS. 

under  existing  conditions,  be  utilized  for  social  devel- 
opment, and  is  exhibited  by  the  two  extremes  of 
society — barbarian  and  aristocratic.  The  latter  is  un- 
employed time,  the  use  of  which  is  indispensable  to 
the  maintenance  of  the  prevailing  standard  of  living, 
and  applies  to  the  wage-receiving  classes. 

While  all  idleness  is  inimical  to  progress,  the  influ- 
ence of  enforced  idleness  is  far  more  disastrous  to  civ- 
ilization than  that  of  natural  idleness.  True,  the  idle- 
ness of  the  Esquimaux,  Patagonian,  or  Jamaica  negro, 
like  that  of  the  sons  of  the  aristocracy,  is  injurious  to 
their  social  development,  but  it  does  not  directly  in- 
flict nearly  so  much  hardship  and  degradation,  either 
on  the  individual  or  the  community,  as  does  the  en- 
forced idleness  of  the  wage-receiving  class.  This  is 
explained  by  the  fact  that  the  idleness  of  both  the 
former  classes  consists  of  unemployed  time  which  is 
not  required  to  obtain  the  means  of  subsistence  ;  con- 
sequently, thdy  are  not  directly  impoverished  by  it. 
In  the  case  of  the  privileged  aristocracy  this  is  due  to 
the  fact  that  their  income,  or  means  of  subsistence, 
does  not  depend  upon  their  own  effort,  and  in  that  of 
the  barbarian  to  the  fact  that  the  number  of  things 
made  necessary  by  his  simple  mode  of  life  is  so  small 
and  easy  to  procure  that  a  few  hours'  labor  a  day  is  all 
that  is  required  to  supply  them. 

This  is  not  the  case,  however,  with  the  wage-laborer  ; 
his  idleness  comes  in  a  different  way,  is  of  a  different 
kind,  and  produces  a  very  different  economic  and 
social  effect  upon  society.  Having,  through  the  more 
highly  complex  state  of  industry,  lost  the  power  to  em- 
ploy himself,  the  wage-laborer  is  compelled  to  work  for 
others,  whose  sole  object  is  to  obtain  from  him  the 
maximum  amount  of  effort  for  the  minimum  reward. 


EFFECT  OF  ENFORCED  IDLENESS.  237 

Consequently,  when  he  is  employed  he  is  compelled, 
for  the  most  part,  through  circumstances  entirely  in 
the  hands  of  the  employer — except  when  limited  by 
law  or  public  opinion — to  work  as  hard  and  as  long  as 
his  physical  and  nervous  energies  will  endure.  This 
being  the  only  condition  upon  which  he  can,  under 
the  wages  system,  obtain  a  livelihood,  when  idle- 
ness is  forced  upon  him  all  his  means  of  living  are 
cut  off. 

The  enforced  idleness  of  the  modern  laborer,  unlike 
the  natural  idleness  of  the  barbarian  and  the  aristo- 
crat, does  not  consist  of  time  that  is  unemployed, 
merely  because  it  is  not  necessary  for  the  gratification 
of  his  wants,  but  it  consists  of  time,  the  use  of  which 
is  indispensable  to  his  very  existence,  except  as  he 
becomes  a  pauper  or  a  criminal. 

Again,  the  inability  of  the  wage  laborers  to  obtain  a 
living  according  to  the  accepted  social  standard  of 
their  class  is  not  only  inimical  to  prosperity  and 
progress,  but  it  is  more  dangerous  to  property  and 
democratic  institutions  than  is  that  of  the  barbarians. 
(i)  Because  he  is  living  in  a  more  highly  complex 
state  of  society,  he  does  not,  like  the  barbarian,  pro- 
duce directly  for  his  own  consumption,  but  he  pro- 
duces what  others  consume,  and  consumes  what  others 
produce.  Thus  the  consumption  of  the  masses  be- 
comes the  basis  of  the  market  for  the  wares  of  the 
whole  community,  from  whose  transactions  the  in- 
come of  all  the  other  classes  is  derived.  Conse- 
quently, the  failure  of  the  wage-receiving  classes  to 
consume — which  enforced  idleness  implies — does  not, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  barbarian,  impoverish  the  la- 
borer alone,  but  undermines  the  prosperity  of  the 
whole  community — so  frequently  exemplified  by  indus- 


238  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

trial  depressions.  (2)  The  privations  of  the  modern 
laborer  are  more  dangerous  to  society  than  those  of 
the  barbarian.  This  is  because,  having  reached  a 
higher  state  of  social  development,  he  is  more  sensitive 
to  the  needs  and  conscious  of  the  rights  of  his  indus- 
trial and  social  relations  ;  and,  being  more  intelligent, 
he  is  naturally  more  powerful  in  producing  a  social 
and  political  tornado,  if  the  means  of  gratifying  his 
established  and  recognized  wants  are  cut  off.  When 
the  barbarians  fail  to  obtain  the  means  of  supplying 
their  meagre  wants,  they  will  die  of  hunger  and  dis- 
ease, as  they  have  frequently  done  by  the  tens  of  thou- 
sands, while  the  modern  laborers,  when,  through  en- 
forced idleness,  they  are  deprived  of  the  means  of  sat- 
isfying their  much  more  complex  wants  and  desires 
(unless  supplied  from  the  wealth  of  the  upper  classes), 
they  will  endanger  the  safety  of  life,  property,  and 
government  itself.  (Witness  the  political  revolutions 
with  which  the  history  of  every  so-called  civilized 
country  is  replete.) 

It  will  thus  be  observed  that  while  the  natural  idle- 
ness of  the  barbarian  tends  to  stereotype  his  environ- 
ment and  arrest  his  progress,  the  efiforced  idleness  of 
the  wage-receiving  classes  threatens  the  very  exist- 
ence of  civilization.  It  may  be  laid  down  as  a  law  in 
social  progress,  that  the  evil  effects  of  enforced  idle- 
ness increase  in  direct  ratio  with  the  advancing  com- 
plexity of  industrial  and  social  relations.  Enforced 
idleness,  therefore,  is  the  most  serious  evil  with  which 
modern  society  has  to  deal.  If  enforced  idleness  can 
be  prevented,  natural  idleness  will  surely  be  gradually 
eliminated  as  civilization  advances.  Enforced  idleness 
arises  from  the  failure  of  the  masses  to  increase  their 
economic  capacity  to  consume  wealth  commensurate 


CAUSE   OF  ENFORCED  IDLENESS.  239 

with  their  power  to  produce  it,*  which  is  due  to  their 
lack  of  opportunity  for  social  development. 

This  condition  of  things  is  the  natural  consequence 
of  the  popular  economic  heresy  of  regarding  the 
laborer  as  a  factor  in  production,  and  ignoring  him  as 
a  factor  in  consumption  ;  which,  in  turn,  naturally  led 
to  the  mistaken  policy  of  absorbing  the  greatest  pos- 
sible amount  of  the  laborer's  energy  and  time  in  the 
former  ;  consequently,  seriously  restricting,  if  not  de- 
stroying, his  opportunity  for  developing  the  latter.  In 
this  way  the  growth  of  consumption  has  been  limited, 
and  that  of  enforced  idleness — the  greatest  of  all  social 
evils — has  been  promoted.  While  all  social  opportunity 
may  not  be  leisure,  all  leisure  is  social  opportunity. 

As  enforced  idleness  is  the  greatest  barrier  to  leisure, 
and  leisure  is  the  economic  solvent  for  enforced  idle- 
ness, whether  or  not  the  social  opportunities  of  the 
masses  can  be  increased  turns  upon  whether  leisure  or 
idleness  shall  prevail.  If  we  do  not  increase  the 
former  we  cannot  escape  from  the  latter,  with  all  its 
consequences. 

The  immediate  and  most  important  question,  the 
answer  to  which  is  necessary  to  enable  us  to  take  the 
first  correct  step  toward  preventing  enforced  idleness, 
is,  how  to  wisely  and  permanently  increase  the  leisure 
time  of  the  laboring  classes.  To  this  question  we  are 
now  in  a  position,  on  the  basis  of  sound  economic  prin- 
ciples, to  give  a  definite  and  emphatic  answer,  which 

is — REDUCE*  THE   HOURS   OF  LABOR. 

*  See  chapter  on  business  depressions,  Vol.  II. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE    ECONOMIC    EFFECT    OF    REDUCING    THE    HOURS 
OF   LABOR. 

Section  I. — The    General  Situation  Stated^    and  the 
Line  of  Opposition  Indicated. 

Before  entering  upon  the  consideration  of  the  sub- 
ject, let  me  say,  once  for  all,  that  in  proposing  a  re- 
duction of  the  hours  of  labor  as  the  indispensable  ^rj/ 
step  toward  promoting  industrial  and  social  reform,  we 
do  not  say  that  it  is  the  only  means  that  will,  under 
any  and  all  conditions,  tend  to  promote  that  end. 
But  what  we  affirm,  and  in  the  preceding  chapters  have 
endeavored  to  show,  is,  that  under  all  conditions,  with- 
out regard  to  race,  climate,  or  state  of  development, 
the  universal  principle — the  first  essential  condition 
upon  which  the  permanent  progress  of  society  de- 
pends— is  the  enlarged  social  opporUniities  of  the  masses. 
Under  the  wages-system,  which  includes,  if  not  the 
largest,  the  most  advanced  portion  of  the  race,  upon 
whose  progress  that  of  the  remaining  portion  largely 
depends,  the  safest,  the  most  general,  and,  conse- 
quently, the  most  effectual  means  for  increasing  the 
social  opportunities  of  the  masses  is  by  a  general  re- 
duction of  the  hours  of  labor. 

While  there  are  other  more  or  less  effectual  means 
of  promoting  the  same  end,  such  as  education,  free 


CAUSE   OF  EMPLOYERS'    OPPOSITION:  241 

lectures,  public  libraries,  parks,  museums,  and  art 
galleries,  these  are,  and  must  necessarily  remain, 
practically  ineffectual,  so  far  as  lifting  the  community 
from  its  present  industrial  and  social  mire  is  con- 
cerned, unless  the  leisure  time  of  the  masses  is  in- 
creased. 

Having  said  this  much  by  way  of  explanation,  let 
us  without  further  delay  proceed  to  consider  what 
would  be  the  economic  effect  upon  the  community  of  a 
general  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor.  Society  is 
economically  divided  into  three  general  groups  or 
classes,  as  laborers  (wage-receivers),  capitalists  (em- 
ployers), and  land-owners.  The  -incomes  of  these 
groups  take  the  form  of  wages,  profits,  and  rent,  re- 
spectively. Instead  of  recognizing  the  universal  law 
that  the  top  is  necessarily  sustained  by  the  bottom,  and 
that  the  incomes  of  the  upper  or  profit  and  rent-receiv- 
ing portions  of  the  community  finally  depend  upon 
the  prosperity  of  the  great  mass  of  wage-receivers,  it 
is  commonly  but  wrongly  assumed  that  the  economic 
interests  of  these  groups  are  not  only  distinct,  but 
often  antagonistic  to  each  other. 

Accordingly,  any  proposition  to  increase  the  social 
opportunities  of  the  masses,  by  reducing  their  hours  of 
labor,  has  always  encountered  the  united  opposition  of 
the  profit  and  rent-receiving  classes.  Nor  is  this  due, 
as  is  commonly  charged,  to  an  abnormal  amount  of 
selfishness  on  their  part,  but  it  arises  from  a  gross  mis- 
conception of  their  economic  relations  to  the  com- 
munity, and  especially  to  the  laboring  classes.  This 
misconception,  as  we  have  already  shown,  is  mainly 
due  to  the  false  teachings  of  political  economy.  Hav- 
ing been  taught  that  profits  move  inversely  with 
wages,  "rising  as  wages  fall,  and  falling  as  wages 
12 


242  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

rise,"  *  it  is  not  surprising  that  they  should  regard 
every  effort  to  improve  the  laborer's  economic  condi- 
tion— which  always  finally  involves  an  increase  of  his 
real  wages — as  inimical  to  their  interests.  This  in- 
verted position  in  relation  to  reducing  the  hours  of 
labor  has  been  further  strengthened  by  the  fact  that 
hitherto  the  proposition  has  always  been  presented 
on  sympathetic  and  philanthropic,  rather  than  upon 
economic  grounds.  The  capitalists  have  been  asked 
to  grant  this  boon,  not  as  an  act  of  wise  and  broad 
statesmanship,  but  out  of  sympathy  for  or  charity 
toward  the  "  unfortunate  classes,"  especially  "  the 
women  and  children."  To  this  they  have,  with  some 
degree  of  consistency,  repHed,  that  **  factories  are 
economic  and  not  charitable  institutions  ;"  that  they 
prefer  to  keep  their  business  and  their  charities  sepa- 
rate, making  the  extent  of  the  latter  dependent  upon 
the  success  of  the  former.  Under  the  influence  of  these 
views,  they  have  vigorously  resisted  all  efforts  in  this 
direction,  as  being  what  they  regard  as  attempts  to 
make  them  give  something  for  nothing,  in  wanton 
violation  of  all  their  rights  as  free  citizens. 

We  shall  doubtless  be  told  by  the  impersonal  and 
irresponsible  "  we'*  of  journalism  that  such  a  propo- 
sition would  be  a  violation  of  the  rights  of  contract  ; 
that  profits,  which  are  now  so  small  that  ninety  per 
cent  of  all  who  enter  business  fail,  would  be  so  reduced 
as  to  bring  ruin  to  the  capitaHst  and  disaster  to  the 
community.  And  in  order  to  show  its  special  guar- 
dianship   over    the    interests     of    the    "  unfortunate 


*  "  Thus  we  arrive  at  the  conclusion  of  Ricardo  and  others,  that 
profits  depend  upon  wages,  rising  as  wages  fall  and  falling  as  wages 
rise." — MilVs  "  Principles  of  Political  Economy,''  Book  II.,  ch.  15,  §7. 


ITS  EFFECT  UPON  WAGES.  243 

classes,"  we  shall  be  assured  that  the  prosperity  of 
the  laborer  depends  upon  the  profits  of  the  capitalist, 
and  that  as  the  laborer  is  paid  according  to  what  he 
produces,  especially  where  piece-work  prevails,*  a 
reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor  would  naturally  involve 
a  corresponding  reduction  of  wages.  Thus,  to  the  em- 
ploying class  this  measure  is  presented  as  containing 
nothing  but  smaller  profits  and  bankruptcy,  and  for 
the  laborer  lower  wages,  more  poverty,  and  social 
degradation. 

In  anticipation  of  this  double  line  of  opposition,  we 
shall  consider  what  the  economic  effect  of  reducing 
the  hours  of  labor  would  be  upon  each  of  these  groups 
separately  as  follows  :  (i)  What  would  be  its  effect 
upon  wages  ?  (2)  What  would  be  its  effect  upon 
profits  ?      (3)  What  would  be  its  effect  upon  rent  ? 

First,  then,  what  would  be  its  influence  upon  wages 
— i.e.y  upon  the  general  rate  of  real  wages  ?  The  cor- 
rect answer  to  this  question  largely  depends  upon  the 
extent  to  which  the  hours  of  labor  are  reduced.  That 
is  to  say,  it  will  depend  not  so  much  upon  the  number 
of  hours  per  day  the  laborer  shall  work  as  upon  the 
extent  to  which  his  unemployed  time  shall  be  in- 
creased. 


Section  II.  —  The  Principle  which  should  Govern  the 
Reduction  of  the  Hours  of  Labor. 

Before  entering  upon  the  consideration  of  the  main 
question,  we  will  digress  a  moment  to  call  special  at- 
tention to  this  point.  We  do  this  because  the  failure 
to  recognize  its  logical  and  economic  importance  has 

*  See  chapter  on  Piece-work. 


244  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

led  the  well-meaning  and  often  uneconomic  friends 
of  short-hour  legislation  to  urge  it  for  sympathetic 
but  untenable  reasons,  and  thereby  expose  the  move- 
ment to  objections  which  would  otherwise  have  been 
too  inexcusable  and  absurd  to  be  injurious.  For  ex- 
ample, according  to  the  humanitarian  and  "  ideal 
equity"  point  of  view  from  which  this  question  has 
hitherto  been  presented,  it  is  held  that  the  hours  of 
labor  should  be  reduced  the  most  where  the  labor  is 
the  hardest  and  the  working  day  the  longest. 

Now,  this  is  just  the  reverse  of  being  correct,  and, 
like  nearly  all  conclusions  induced  by  sympathy  and 
ideal  conceptions  of  an  "  ought  to  be"  social  state,  it 
is  an  economical  and  philosophical  inversion.  The 
error  involved  in  this  idea  is  of  the  same  character, 
and  arises  from  the  same  source  as  that  which  impels 
the  endeavor  to  plant  high  morality  in  extreme  pov- 
erty and  to  inaugurate  ideal  co-operation  amid  the 
social  conditions  of  barbarism.  It  should  always  be 
remembered  that  unemployed  time,  like  wealth,  will 
prove  to  be  an  advantage  or  a  disadvantage  according 
to  the  capacity  or  incapacity  of  persons  to  wisely 
employ  it. 

Although  we  have  repeatedly  emphasized  the  fact 
that  wealth  is  an  indispensable  condition  to  progress, 
we  have  more  than  once  pointed  out  that  even  wealth 
cannot  with  any  permanent  advantage  be  distributed 
in  advance  of  the  social  need  or  general  capacity 
of  the  people  to  wisely  .consume  it.  Were  it  possible 
to  arbitrarily  double  the  wealth  (wages)  of  the  laboring 
classes  to-morrow,  it  would  not  increase  the  average 
comfort  and  well-being  of  the  masses,  simply  because, 
as  before  explained,  such  a  sudden  increase  of  wealth 
in  advance  of  the  natural  development  of  the  social 


SOCIAL  BASIS  FOR  LESS  HOURS.  245 

wants  and  character  necessary  for  its  wise  consump- 
tion would  inevitably  lead  to  reckless  waste,  dissipa- 
tion, and  vice  in  a  thousand  forms.  But  four  times  or 
even  four  hundred  times  as  much  wealth  can  be  safely 
distributed  among  the  masses,  if  it  comes  in  response 
to,  instead  of  in  advance  of  the  social  need  and  ability 
to  nominally  consume  it.  In  short,  whenever  the  dol- 
lar precedes  the  want,  it  means  waste  and  dissipation  ; 
but  when  the  dollar  is  preceded  by  the  want  it  means 
wise  consumption  and  social  progress. 

In  the  same  way  and  for  the  same  reason  unem- 
ployed time  will  prove  to  be  idleness  that  injures  and 
degrades,  or  leisure  that  develops  and  elevates,  accord- 
ing to  the  capacity  to  socially  utilize  it  ;  and  this,  in 
turn,  depends  upon  the  simplicity  or  complexity  of 
the  existing  social  condition  of  the  people.  And,  as 
repeatedly  explained,  the  wants  and  desires,  or  the 
social  character,  of  a  people  are  always  commensurate 
with  their  social  opportunities.  Accordingly,  we  find 
that  where  the  laborer's  employment  is  physically  the 
most  exhausting,  and  the  normal  work  day  the  long- 
est, his  social  opportunities  are  the  smallest,  his  life 
the  simplest,  and  his  character  the  lowest  and  weak- 
est ;  and,  consequently,  his  ability  to  wisely  utilize 
unemployed  time  the  smallest. 

Thus  the  American  laborer  can  with  advantage  to 
himself  and  the  community  consume  from  two  to  five 
dollars  a  day,  while  the  sudra  of  India  would  be  sur- 
feited and   demoralized  by  half  that  amount.*     For 

*  Sir  Thomas  Brassey  referring  to  his  father's  experience  with  the 
coolies  of  India,  and  the  effect  of  a  sudden  rise  of  fifty  per  cent  in 
their  wages  during  the  building  of  railroads  in  that  country,  observes  : 
"  The  Hindoo  workman  knows  no  other  want  than  his  daily  portion 
of  rice,  and  the  torrid  climate  renders  watertight  habitations  and 


246  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

the  same  reason,  the  laborer  in  Russia,  who  is  em- 
ployed from  thirteen  to  seventeen  hours  a  day,  sub- 
sisting chiefly  upon  black  bread  and  water,  could  not 
at  once  employ  to  social  advantage  as  much  unoccu- 
pied time  as  the  laborer  of  America,  England,  France, 
and  Germany,  whose  opportunities  and  material  con- 
ditions have  been  better,  and  whose  social  character  is 
correspondingly  higher. 

Obviously,  therefore,  to  make  the  greatest  reduction 
in  the  hours  of  labor  where  the  work  is  the  hardest 
and  the  working  day  the  longest,  is  to  give  the  great- 
est amount  of  unemployed  time  where  there  is  the 
least  capacity  to  use  it  to  personal  or  social  advantage, 
and  thereby  defeat  the  prime  object  of  the  measure. 
In  truth,  a  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor,  in  order  to 
be  economically  and  socially  effective,  must  be  applied 
inversely  in  degree  with  the  industrial  and  social  deg- 
radation of  the  masses.  In  other  words,  its  applica- 
tion must  be  governed  by  the  principle  that  the  ability 
to  utilize  new  advantages  of  whatever  kind  is  propor- 
tionate to  the  extent  of  previous  social  opportunities 
and  character.  That  is,  "to  him  that  hath  shall  be 
given,"  not  as  a  matter  of  favoritism,  but  simply  be- 
cause he  only  can  appreciate  and  use,  and  hence  derive 
any  advantage  from  having  it.  A  clear  understanding 
of  this  principle  will  not  only  prevent  the  friends  of 
short-hour  legislation  from  exposing  the  movement  to 
many  unnecessary  attacks,. but  it  will  also  forever  ex- 
plode that  stale,  illogical,  and  superficial  objection, 
**  that  if  twelve  hours'  labor  a  day  is  better  than  four- 
ample  clothing  alike  unnecessary.  The  laborer,  therefore,  desists 
from  work  as  soon  as  he  has  provided  for  the  necessities  of  the  day. 
Higher  pay  adds  nothing  to  his  comforts  ;  it  serves  but  to  diminish 
his  ordinary  industry.'* — *'  Work  attd  Wages,''  pp.  88,  89. 


ABSURD  OBJECTIONS.  247 

teen,  then  six  must  be  better  than  twelve,  three  better 
than  six ;  and  that  even  none  would  be  still  bet- 
ter." It  might  with  equal  force  be  said  that  because 
moderate  eating  is  more  wholesome  than  gluttony,  to 
abstain  from  food  altogether  would  be  even  better  than 
moderate  eating.  Indeed,  if  there  were  any  sense  in 
such  talk  it  would  follow  that  sixteen  hours'  labor  a 
day  must  be  better  than  fourteen,  and  eighteen  or 
twenty  still  better  than  sixteen.  Therefore,  the 
surest  way  for  the  masses  to  obtain  wealth  and  com- 
fort is  to  work  the  whole  twenty-four.  Although  the 
utter  imbecility  of  such  reasoning  when  carried  to  its 
logical  conclusion  is  apparent  to  the  dullest  mind,  it 
has  been  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  one  of 
the  stock  arguments  of  the  opponents  of  short-hour 
legislation.* 

Now,  to  recapitulate,  we  have  seen,  (i)  That  in- 
creased social  opportunities  tend  to  increase  alike  the 
wages  of  the  laborer  and  the  wealth  and  progress  of 
the  community.  (2)  That  leisure  time  constitutes 
social  opportunity.  (3)  That  unoccupied  time  is  lei- 
sure only  proportionate  to  the  existing  capacity  to 
socially  utilize  it.     (4)  That  under  the  wages  (or  fac- 

*  The  New  York  Evening  Post,  one  of  New  York's  most  respectable 
dailies,  which  takes  special  pride  in  the  soundness  of  its  economic 
reasoning,  on  the  ist  of  May,  1886,  in  an  editorial  over  a  column  in 
length,  devoted  to  a  criticism  of  an  article  of  mine  on  the  eight-hour 
question  in  the  April  number  of  the  Forum,  employed  the  above  argu- 
ment in  the  following  language  :  "  It  is  sufficient,  therefore,  to  sug- 
gest that  the  principle  that  we  have  considered  may  eventually  lead  to 
the  entire  extinction  of  the  primeval  curse  of  labor.  We  know  of  no 
reason  why,  if  a  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor  infallibly  leads  to  an 
increased  production  of  wealth,  the  condition  of  the  race  should  not 
be  infinitely  improved  by  the  general  cessation  of  tiresome  exertion." 
And  this  editorial  was  reprinted  entire  in  the  New  York  Nation  for 
May  8th,  1886. 


248  WEALTH  AND   PROGRESS. 

tory)  system  of  industry,  the  most  feasible  way  of  in- 
creasing the  leisure  and,  therefore,  the  social  oppor- 
tunities of  the  masses  is  by  a  general  reduction  of 
the  hours  of  labor.  (5)  That  while  a  reduction  of  the 
hours  of  labor  is  the  only  practical  means  of  increasing 
the  laborer's  leisure,  whether  the  unoccupied  time 
given  to  him  by  such  a  measure  will  tend  to  increase 
his  leisure  or  add  to  his  idleness,  will  depend  upon 
whether  or  not  the  extent  of  the  reduction  is  in  excess 
of  the  capacity  of  the  average  laborer  to  use  it  to  his 
personal  and  social  advantage. 

It  will  thus  be  observed  that  while  the  principle  here 
laid  down  is  universally  sound,  if  it  is  unscientifically 
applied  the  result  may  not  only  prove  to  be  not  bene- 
ficial, but  it  may  be  positively  injurious  to  the  best  in- 
terests of  the  community.  Manifestly,  therefore,  the 
extent  to  which  the  hours  of^  labor  are  reduced  must 
be  an  important  factor  in  determining  the  economic 
effect  of  that  measure  upon  the  community. 


Section  III. — How  much  can  the  Hoiirs  of  Labor  be 
Safely  and  Wisely  Reduced  ? 

If  we  were  called  upon  to  answer  that  question  for 
the  Patagonian,  the  Jamaica  negro,  or  the  coolie  of 
India,  where  hand  labor  and  "  natural  idleness"  pre- 
vail, we  should  probably  find  that  larger  social  oppor- 
tunity for  them  lies  in  the  direction  of  a  closer  contact 
with  the  industrial  whips  and  spurs  of  the  wages  or 
factory  system,  with  its  machinery  and  division  of 
labor,  and  even  by  an  increase  instead  of  a  reduction 
of  the  hours  of  labor.  And  if  we  were  considering  the 
question  in  relation  to  the  laborers  of  Russia,  Turkey, 


APPLICATION  OF    THE  PRINCIPLE.  249 

or  Austria,  where  the  wages  system  exists  only  in  its 
first  and  most  barbarous  stages,  and  where  the  laborers 
work  from  thirteen  to  sixteen  hours  a  day,  living 
mainly  on  black  bread  and  broth,  amid  the  social  con- 
ditions but  slightly  removed  from  those  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  a  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor  to  ten  per 
day  would  probably  give  them  all  the  unoccupied  time 
they  could  safely  be  trusted  with. 

But  we  are  not  considering  the  question  with  refer- 
ence (except  indirectly)  to  the  laborers  in  the  lowest, 
but  to  those  in  the  highest  stages  of  civilization — not 
in  relation  to  those  whose  social  opportunities  have 
been  the  most  limited,  but  with  reference  to  those 
whose  opportunities  have  been  the  greatest,  and  whose 
social  character  is  accordingly  the  most  highly  differ- 
entiated. If  this  proposition  can  be  successfully  ap- 
plied in  a  few  of  the  most  advanced  countries — as 
the  United  States,  England,  France,  and  Germany, 
and,  perhaps,  Belgium  and  Switzerland — nothing  can 
prevent  it  from  extending  to  the  less  developed  coun- 
tries as  fast  as  they  adopt  improved  methods  of  pro- 
duction and  become  a  part  of  the  modern  industrial 
system. 

We  will  consider  the  question,  then,  with  special 
reference  to  its  effects  in  the  United  States,  England, 
France,  and  Germany.  For  while  these  countries  are 
politically  distinct,  and  in  some  respects  quite  differ- 
ent, economically  they  may  be  regarded  as  practically 
all  one.  They  all  employ  the  same  methods  of  pro- 
duction, pursue  the  same  industrial  policy,  and  very 
largely  buy  and  sell  in  the  same  markets.  In  fact, 
the  present  means  of  transportation  and  communi- 
cation are  such  that  a  change  of  a  half  cent  in  prices 
in    any   one   country   is    felt    almost    simultaneously 


250  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

in  them  all.  And  despite  superficial  perturbations 
resulting  from  discriminating  tariffs  and  other  local 
causes,  the  remarkable  uniformity  of  industrial  de- 
pressions* clearly  shows  that  the  industrial  prosperity 
of  all  these  countries  is  governed  by  the  same  general 
economic  causes.  It  is  not  only  true  that  for  all  the 
purposes  of  economic  reasoning  and  for  industrial  legis- 
lation these  countries  are  one,  but  whatever  will  dispel 
the  industrial  and  social  chaos  in  those  four  countries 
will  redeem  all  Christendom,  and  give  civilization  such 
momentum  that  even  in  Asia  and  Africa  the  days  of 
barbarism  will  be  numbered.  What  are  the  hours  of 
the  average  working  day  in  those  countries,  and  how 
much  can  they  be  safely — economically — reduced  ? 

In  this  country,  outside  of  Massachusetts.f  except 
in  a  few  limited  trades,  the  hours  of  labor  range  from 
eleven  to  thirteen  per  day.  Although  data  for  ascer- 
taining the  exact  average  for  the  whole  country  is 
difficult  to  obtain,  it  may  safely  be  placed  at  eleven 
and  one  half  hours.  But  in  order  to  be  sure  of  under 
rather  than  overstating  the  case,  we  will  put  it  at 
eleven  hours. 

In  England  they  are  fixed  by  statute  at  nine  and  one 
half,  in  France  at  twelve,  and  in  Germany,  while  there 
is  no  law  regulating  the  hours  of  labor,  custom  has 
limited  the  nominal  working  day   to  twelve   hours. :j: 


*  See  First  Report  of  United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor,  1886, 
p.  290. 

t  Since  writing  the  above,  a  ten-hour  law  has  been  adopted  in  Rhode 
Island,  and  bills  have  been  introduced  into  the  Legislature  in  Maine 
and  New  Hampshire  for  that  purpose. 

X  In  many  parts  of  Germany  the  hours  of  labor  are  thirteen  and 
fourteen  per  day.  See  Young's  *' Labor  in  Europe  and  America," 
P-  573. 


AN  EIGHT-HO  UR  S YSTEM.  25 1 

Thus,  in  these  countries,  taken  all  together,  the  aver- 
age working  day  is  about  eleven  and  one  eighth  hours 
a  day.  How  much,  then,  can  these  hours  be  safely 
reduced — i.e,y  how  much  can  they  be  reduced  without 
promoting  dissipation,  instead  of  improvement,  among 
the  great  mass  of  the  laborers  in  those  countries  ? 

It  should  ever  be  remembered  in  this  connection 
that  wise  statesmanship  can  never  do  more  in  economic 
and  social  affairs  than  influence  the  direction  of  gen- 
eral tendencies,  and  also  that  it  is  the  character  of  the 
great  mass — the  seventy  or  eighty  per  cent  of  the 
community — that  determines  the  direction  and  moulds 
the  character  of  the  social  and  political  institutions. 

In  the  light  of  experience,  to  which  we  shall  here- 
after refer,  and  the  present  highly  complex  industrial 
conditions  in  the  above-named  countries,  there  can  be 
no  doubt  as  to  the  economic  and  social  safety  of  re- 
ducing the  normal  working  day  for  adults  to  eight 
hours,  and  that  of  children  under  sixteen  years  of  age 
to  half  time. 


Section  IV. — The  Direct  and  Immediate  Effect  of  an 
Eight-Hour  System. 

What  would  be  the  natural  effect  upon  wages  of  the 
general  adoption  of  an  eight-hour  system  in  the 
United  States,  England,  France,  and  Germany  ?  In 
order  to  understand  the  proposition  clearly,  we  will 
consider,  first,  its  effect  upon  wages  if  it  were  adopt- 
ed only  in  this  country.  According  to  the  last  cen- 
sus (1880),  the  total  population  of  this  country  was 
50,155,783.  Of  this  number,  36,761,607  were  over  ten 
years  of  age,  and    17,392,099,  or  nearly  one  half,  of 


252  WEALTH  AND   PROGRESS. 

those  over  ten  years  of  age  were  engaged  in  the  vari- 
ous occupations.  Of  these,  1,017,034  were  engaged  in 
the  various  professions,  as  lawyers,  physicians,  clergy- 
men, teachers,  journalists,  actors,  etc.,  and  1,479,634 
were  manufacturers,  merchants,  bankers,  traders, 
clerks,  etc.,  leaving  14,895,431  who  properly  came 
under  the  head  of  laborers.  Of  this  number,  however, 
4,347,617  are  farmers  and  others  engaged  in  agricul- 
ture, who  work  for  themselves,  and  hence  they  cannot 
be  strictly  classed  as  wage-laborers,  although  a  large 
per  cent  of  them  work  for  wages  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  the  time,  and  would  be  directly  affected  by  an 
eight-hour  system.  The  remaining  10,547,814  are  ex- 
clusively wage-receivers.  In  other  words,  thirty-four 
per  cent  of  the  whole  population  actually  participate 
in  industrial  pursuits.  Twenty  per  cent  of  the  whole 
population — sixty  per  cent  of  those  engaged  in  all  occu- 
pations— ^and  seventy  four  percent  of  all  engaged  in  in- 
dustries, outside  of  agriculture,  work  for  wages.  If  we 
exclude  from  this  number  the  1,075,655  domestic  ser- 
vants, there  are  still  9,472,159  persons  actually  engaged 
in  productive  industries  who  work  exclusively  for  wages. 
The  general  adoption  of  this  measure  -would  properly 
include  the  whole  14,895,431  ;  but,  in  order  to  avoid 
captious  objections,  we  will  consider  its  economic  effect 
upon  the  laboring  classes,  if  only  applied  to  the  9,472,- 
159  who  work  exclusively  for  wages.  This  number 
consists  of  8,353,803  adults  of  both  sexes  and  1,118,356 
children  under  fifteen  years  of  age. 

All  considerable  industrial  and  social  changes  pro- 
duce two  effects.  One  is  immediate  and  more  or  less 
temporary,  and  the  other  secondary  and  permanent,  in 
its  character.  Whether  the  latter  is  in  harmony  or  con- 
flicts with   the    former   depends  upon    the   economic 


THE  FIRST  EFFECT  OF  EIGHT  HOURS.  253 

soundness  of  the  measure  adopted.  Most  legislation, 
especially  upon  industrial  questions,  has  been  adopted 
with  special  reference  to  its  immediate  effect,  and 
often  in  utter  ignorance  of  the  natural  tendency  of  its 
permanent  influence  ;  and  not  infrequently  the  latter 
has  proved  to  be  the  mere  reaction  and  its  effect  to  be 
the  opposite  of  the  former.  Such  has  been  the  case 
with  all  abnormal  expansions  and  contractions  of  the 
currency,  and,  indeed,  with  all  attempts  to  regulate 
wages,  profits,  interest,  rent,  etc.,  or  to  otherwise  im- 
prove society  by  means  which  do  not  first  operate 
upon  and  through  the  social  opportunities  and  charac- 
.ter  of  the  people. 

The  adoption  of  an  eight-hour  system,  however, 
would  be  an  exception  to  this  rule.  Its  immediate 
effect,  which  is  all  that  has  hitherto  been  recognized, 
would,  as  we  shall  soon  see,  be  in  perfect  harmony 
with  its  ultimate  and  permanent  economic  influence. 
The  first  and  immediate  effect  of  the  general  adoption 
of  this  system  would  be  to  reduce  the  working  time  of 
the  8,353,803  adult  laborers  three  hours  a  day,  or  about 
twenty-seven  per  cent,  and  that  of  the  1,118,356  chil- 
dren seven  hours  a  day,  or  sixty-four  per  cent.  This 
would  withdraw  25,061,409  hours  of  adult  labor  and 
7,828,492  hours  of  child  labor  from  the  market  with- 
out discharging  a  single  laborer.  The  industrial  vac- 
uum thus  created  would  be  equal  to  increasing  che 
present  demand  for  adult  labor  thirty-one  per  cent, 
and  that  of  child  labor  fifty  per  cent.  In  other  words, 
without  increasing  either  our  home  or  foreign  market, 
but  simply  to  supply  the  present  normal  consumption, 
besides  creating  a  demand  for  1,118,356  children  under 
sixteen  years  of  age  to  work  the  other  half  day  with 
those  already  employed,  it  would  create  employment 


254  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

for  3,552,059  new  laborers.  In  order  to  do  this,  about 
twenty  per  cent  more  factories  and  workshops  would 
be  needed,  besides  setting  all  our  present  idle  machin- 
ery in  operation.  This,  it  is  needless  to  say,  would 
create  a  further  demand  for  labor  in  the  mines,  quar- 
ries, forgesy  furnaces,  iron  works,  and  other  industries 
that  contribute  to  the  building  and  equipment  of  the 
new  factories  and  workshops. 

Now,  enforced  idleness  is  the  greatest  obstacle  to 
social  progress.  All  careful  students  of  social  economy 
have  come  to  recognize  the  fact  that  nothing  can  per- 
manently improve  the  condition  of  the  laboring  classes 
which  does  not  dispel  that  industrial  terror,  enforced 
idleness,  which  is  exactly  what  the  uniform  adoption 
of  this  measure  would  succeed  in  doing. 

According  to  the  report  of  the  United  States  Com- 
missioner of  Labor  (1886*),  there  are  in  this  country 
about  one  million  unemployed  laborers,  or  about  five 
and  one  half  per  cent  of  the  whole  number  engaged  in 
all  occupations.  This,  it  will  be  observed,  is  only  a 
little  over  one  fourth  (twenty-eight  per  cent)  of  the 
number  of  new  laborers  that  would  be  required  by  the 
general  adoption  of  this  system.  There  are  no  exact 
data  as  to  the  number  of  unemployed  in  England, 
France,  and  Germany.     It  may  be  safely  assumed  for 

*  The  exact  language  of  the  report  is  as  follows  :  '*  Applying  the 
percentage  arrived  at  (seven  and  one  half  per  cent),  we  obtain  a  total  of 
998,839  as  constituting  the  best  estimate  of  the  possibly  unemployed  in 
the  United  Slates  during  the  year  ending  July  ist,  1885  (meaning  by 
the  unemployed  those  who  during  the  lime  mentioned  were  seeking 
employment),  that  it  has  been  possible  for  the  Bureau  to  make.  It  is 
probably  true  that  this  total  (in  round  numbers  1,000,000),  as  repre- 
senting the  unemployed  at  any  one  lime  in  the  United  Slates,  is  fairly 
representative,  even  if  the  laborers  thrown  out  of  employment  through 
the  cessation  of  railroad  building  be  included,"  pp.  65,  66. 


THE  NUMBER  OF  UNEMPLOYED. 


255 


general  purposes,  however,  that,  on  the  whole,  the 
proportion  to  the  number  actually  engaged  in  the  vari- 
ous occupations  is  approximately  the  same  as  in  thi§ 
country. 

According  to  the  latest  returns,  the  total  number  of 
persons  engaged  in  the  various  industries  in  the  above- 
named  countries  is  as  follows  : 


Countries. 


France 

Germany 

England  and  Wales 
Scotland 

Total 


Persons 
Employed. 


14,996,998 

18,986,494 

11,187,584 

1,606,984 


46,778,060 


Per  cent 
of  Popu- 
lation. 


43 
42 

43  fV 
43 


Assuming  the  unemployed  to  constitute  five  and 
one  half  per  cent  of  this  number,  as  in  this  country, 
there  are  in  those  countries  2,572,793,  which,  added 
to  the  1,000,000  in  this  country,  makes  a  grand  total 
of  3,572,793,  being  only  20,734  more  than  the  number^ 
of  new  employments  created  by  this  measure. 

It  is  thus  clear  that  the  general  adoption  of  an  eight- 
hour  system  for  adults  and  half  time  for  children  under 
sixteen  years  of  age  in  the  United  States  alone  would 
nearly  absorb  all  the  unemployed  laborers  in  America, 
France,  Germany,  and  England,  including  Scotland  and 
Wales.  This,  we  repeat,  is  not  a  fanciful  speculation, 
based  upon  an  imaginary  expansion  of  our  home  or  for- 
eign market,  but  it  is  what  would  necessarily  result  from 
the  natural  operation  of  economic  forces  in  the  effort 
to  supply  the  present  normal  consumption.  The  em- 
ployment of  nearly  four  millions  of  new  laborers  would 
necessarily   increase   the   number   of   consumers,   and 


256  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

thereby  enlarge  the  market  for  commodities  to  that 
extent.  That  such  a  result  would  tend  to  increase 
wages  is  very  clear.  Although  wages  would  not  neces- 
sarily rise  in  the  same  proportion  that  enforced  idle- 
ness was  reduced,  all  the  influences  would  be  in  that 
direction. 

By  the  absorption  of  the  unemployed  and  the  con- 
sequent diminution  of  competition  among  the  labor- 
ers for  employment,  the  power  of  the  direct  influ- 
ences that  tend  to  promote  the  rise  of  real  wages 
would  be  increased.  In  other  words,  the  power  of 
natural  forces  to  raise  wages  increases  as  the  opposing 
pressure  of  enforced  idleness  is  diminished.  Mani- 
festly, therefore,  the  adoption  of  the  measure  under 
consideration,  by  absorbing  the  enforced  idleness  and 
able-bodied  pauperism  in  this  and  the  three  leading 
countries  in  Europe,  would  at  once  tend  to  reduce 
poverty.  Increase  the  consumption  of  wealth,  and  raise 
wages. 

If  this  would  result  from  its  application  in  the 
,United  States  alone,  what,  it  may  be  asked,  would  be 
the  eff"ect  of  its  adoption  in  England,  France,  and 
Germany  at  the  same  time  ?     Let  the  facts  answer. 

The  number  who  work  for  wages  in  those  countries, 
according  to  the  most  recent  data  upon  the  subject,* 
is  in  France,  8,700,515  ;  Germany,  10,970,845  ;  Eng- 
land and  Wales,  9.317,374,  and  in  Scotland,  1,324,077, 
making  a  grand  total  of  30,312,811.  Of  this  number 
there  are  of  both  sexes  engaged  in  domestic  service, 
in  France,  739»544  \  Germany,  938,294  ;  England  and 
Wales,  1,803,810,  and  in  Scotland,  176,565,  making  a 

*  The  official  returns  in  the  respective  countries  as  given  in 
J.  Scott's  latest  "  Statesman's  Year-Book"  for  1886. 


CREA  TES  NE  W  EMPL  0  YMENTS.  257 

total  of  3,658,213,  leaving,  exclusive  of  domestic  ser- 
vants, 26,654,598  who  work  for  wages.  Exactly  what 
proportion  of  this  number  is  composed  of  children 
under  sixteen  years  of  age  I  am  unable  to  ascertain. 

Fortunately,  however,  we  have  those  facts  for  this 
country,  which  will  serve  as  a  safe  basis  for  an  approx- 
imately correct  general  estimate. 

In  1880  there  were  in  the  United  States  1,118,356 
children  under  fifteen  years  of  age  employed  in  the 
various  occupations,  being  at  that  time  about  eleven 
and  eight  tenths  per' cent  of  the  whole  number  work- 
ing for  wages  in  productive  industries.  Assuming  the 
same  proportion  of  those  who  work  for  wages — ex- 
clusive of  domestic  servants — in  Europe  are  children 
under  that  age  (which  is  a  very  low  estimate),  the 
26,654,598  wage  laborers  consist  of  23,509,256  adults 
and  3,145,342  children  under  fifteen  years  of  age. 

Now,  to  reduce  the  working  time  of  the  adults  to 
eight  hours  each  day,  and  that  of  the  children  under 
sixteen  years  of  age  to  half  time,  would  withdraw 
from  the  market  92,545,162  hours'  labor  each  day  with- 
out discharging  a  single  laborer.  But  in  order  to 
put  the  children  now  at  work  on  half  time  would  ne- 
cessitate the  immediate  employment  of  3,145,342  ad- 
ditional children  to  work  the  other  half  day  with  them. 
This  would  take  12,581,368  hours  a  day,  leaving  a  net 
withdrawal  of  79,963,794  hours'  labor  a  day,  which 
would  be  equal  to  creaffng  employment  for  9,995,474 
adult  laborers.  This  number  added  to  the  2,627,434 
days*  work  created  by  its  adoption  in  this  country 
makes  a  grand  total  of  12,622,908  created  in  the  four 
countries  by  a  general  adoption  of  an  eight-hour  and 
half-time  system. 

It  may  be  objected  by  the  opponents  of  this  propo- 


258  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

sition,  that  it  cannot  be  successfully  applied  to  agricul- 
tural laborers.  To  avoid  this  objection — although  it  is 
untenable,  especially  where  modern  machinery  is  used 
— we  will  eliminate  agricultural  laborers  as  well  as  do- 
mestic servants  from  the  calculation. 

The  number  v/orking  for  wages  in  the  four  countries 
referred  to  is  11,931,525.  Three  hours  a  day  for  this 
number  equals  4,474,321  days'  labor.  Deducting  this 
number  from  the  grand  total  of  12,622,908,  leaves  8, 148,- 
587.  Or,  to  state  the  case  another  way,  the  simultaneous 
and  uniform  adoption  of  this  proposition  in  the  United 
States,  England,  France,  and  Germany  (exclusive  of 
agricultural  laborers  and  dorriestic  servants),  besides 
giving  half-time  employment  to  4,263,698  children,  and 
absorbing  all  the  unemployed  laborers  and  able-bodied 
paupers  in  the  above  countries,  would  create  a  demand 
for  more  laborers  than  the  total  number  now  working 
for  wages  in  productive  industries  in  Belgium,  Holland, 
Norway,  Sweden,  Switzerland,  Portugal,  and  Ireland 
combined.  If  it  would  only  do  half  this,  it  would 
more  than  absorb  all  the  enforced  idleness  and  able- 
bodied  pauperism  in  this  country  and  Europe  to-day. 

But  even  if  it  only  created  sufficient  employment  to 
absorb  the  3,572,793  unemployed  laborers  referred  to, 
-which  we  have  seen  would  be  accomplished  by  its 
adoption  in  this  country  alone,  it  would  increase  the 
demand  for  general  products  equal  to  adding  to  the 
present  market  the  entire  consumption  of  the  wage- 
receiving  classes  of  Belgium,  Holland,  and  Switzerland, 
which,  it  is  needless  to  say,  would  make  a  proportion- 
ately larger  production  ;  and,  consequently,  more 
laborers  would  be  necessary. 

That  a  measure  which  would,  do  this,  without  arbi- 
trarily molesting  vested  interests,  invading  the  rights 


WHAT  EIGHT  HOURS    WOULD  DO.  259 

of  property,  or  disturbing  the  prevailing  methods  of 
trade,  commerce,  or  industry,  would  tend  to  advance 
wages  and  improve  the  condition  of  the  laboring 
classes  is  too  obvious  to  need  discussing.  For  while, 
as  already  observed,  wages  would  not  rise  proportionate 
to  the  diminished  relative  supply  of  labor,  the  remov^al 
of  enforced  idleness  would  enable  the  influence  of 
social  forces  to  push  wages  up  to  the  maximum,  instead 
of  being  forced  down,  as  at  present,  to  the  minimum 
rate  consistent  with  economic  and  social  safety. 

If  anything  approximating  to  such  results  could  be 
shown  on  a  scientific  basis,  for  any  form  of  state 
socialism,  land  nationalization,  tariff,  or  currency  re- 
form, it  would  be  deemed  sufficient  to  warrant,  if 
necessary,  the  overthrow  of  existing  institutions  for 
their  accomplishment. 

Section  V. — The  Permanent  Economic  Effects. 

Thus  far  we  have  considered  the  proposition  only 
with  reference  to  its  immediate  and  perhaps  temporary 
effect.  What  would  be  its  secondary  and  permanent 
influence  ?  is  the  next  and  still  more  important 
question. 

A  little  consideration  will  show  that  while  this  would 
be  more  gradual,  permanent,  and  far-reaching  in  its 
nature  than  the  first,  its  tendency  and  influence  would 
be  in  the  same  direction  and  in  perfect  harmony 
with  it.  Indeed,  it  is  in  the  gradual  and  permanent 
effect — for  which  the  first  merely  clears  the  way — that 
the  real  economic  and  social  importance  of  this  propo- 
sition consists.  Were  it  otherwise,  its  economic  sound- 
ness would  be  questionable,  and  its  adoption,  to  say  the 
least,  an  act  of  very  doubtful  expediency. 


26o  WEALTH  AND   PROGRESS. 

It  is  a  well-established  principle  in  political  economy 
that  the  extent  of  the  demand  for  commodities  deter- 
mines business  prosperity.  It  is  equally  clear,  though 
less  understood,  that  this  demand  is  governed  by  the 
habitual  consumption  of  wealth  by  the  masses.  Nor 
is  it  any  less  evident  that  the  consumption  of  wealth 
in  any  community  is  finally  determined  by  the  general 
standard  of  living  in  that  community.  It  is  the 
essence  of  economic  law  that  whatever  tends  to  develop 
the  wants,  raise  the  standard  of  living,  and  elevate  the 
social  character  of  the  masses,  necessarily  tends  to 
promote  the  advance  of  real  wages. 

The  first  condition  necessary  to  the  development  of 
character  is  social  opportunity,  which,  under  present 
conditions,  more  leisure  alone  can  give.  This  indis- 
pensable condition  for  social  progress  is  what  the 
measure  before  us  is  specially  designed  to  furnish. 
Simultaneous  with  the  immediate  effects  referred  to, 
over  thirty-six  miUions  of  laborers  would  leave  their 
work  each  day  less  exhausted,  mentally  and  physi- 
cally, and  have  three  hours'  extra  leisure  time  on  their 
hands,  which  means  so  much  positive  opportunity  for 
family  life  and  general  social  intercourse.  With  more 
leisure  and  less  exhaustion  the  laborer,  from  various 
motives,  will  be  continually  forced  or  attracted  into 
new  and  more  complex  social  relations,  which  is  the 
first  step  toward  education  and  culture,  in  the  broadest 
sense  of  the  term.  In  short,  it  means  his  gradual  in- 
troduction to  a  new  social  environment,  the  uncon- 
scious influence  of  which  would  necessarily  awaken 
and  develop  new  tastes  and  desires  for  more  social 
'comforts.  He  would  desire  more  wholesome  and  bet- 
ter appointed  homes,  more  travel,  literature,  enter- 
tainment,   etc.      Not    to   speak  of  the  intellectual, 


THE   OSCILLATION  OF    WAGES,  261 

moral,  and  political  influence  to  result  therefrom,  which 
we  shall  consider  hereafter,  the  purely  economic  effect 
of  this  would  be  little  short  of  a  revolution.  In  pro- 
portion to  the  frequency  that  the  new  desires  were  grati- 
fied, the  development  of  which,  under  such  conditions, 
no  power  on  earth  could  prevent,  would  they  crystallize 
into  urgent  wants  and  necessities,  the  satisfaction  of 
which  would  become  an  essential  part  of  the  standard 
of  living,  demanded  by  the  social  habits  and  character 
of  the  people. 

The  accepted  standard  of  living  being  the  economic 
law  of  wages,  to  raise  the  standard  of  living  of  the 
masses  is  necessarily  to  increase  the  rate  of  wages. 
By  the  accepted  standard  of  living,  we  mean  the  stand- 
ard of  living  which  the  consensus  of  that  class  or 
country  has  determined  is  requisite  to  material  com- 
fort and  social  decency,  and  below  which  one  cannot 
permanently  go  without  incurring  social  disadvantage. 
A  few  laborers  in  any  class  or  comm.unity  may  adopt 
a  standard  of  living  considerably  above  or  below  that 
generally  adopted  by  the  great  mass  or  general  aver- 
age of  that  class,  but  the  standard  of  living  thus 
adopted  by  exceptional  individuals  does  not  determine 
the  general  rate  of  wages,  nor  even  their  own  wages. 
Wages,  like  all  economic  elements,  are  governed  not 
by  individual,  but  by  general  social  forces. 

Some  slight  perturbations  in  wages  may  be  de- 
termined by  the  individual  character  and  capacity  of 
the  laborer  himself,  but  the  sphere  in  which  those 
oscillations  can  occur  is  absolutely  determined  by  the 
social  character  of  the  great  mass.  For  example,  the 
wages  of  a  certain  class  of  laborers  in  China  may  oscil- 
late between  seven  and  twelve  cents  a  day,  accord- 
ing to  ability,  necessity,  etc.,  but  from  the  sphere  of 


262  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

thirty  or  forty  cents  a  day,  he  is  absolutely  debarred. 
Indeed,  to  attempt,  for  any  personal  reasons,  to  ob- 
tain such  wages  would  simply  exclude  him  from  em- 
ployment altogether. 

If  he  comes  to  this  country  the  sphere  of  these  oscil- 
lations is  entirely  changed.  Here  it  will  probably  be 
between  forty  and  sixty  cents  a  day,  instead  of  from 
seven  to  twelve  cents,  as  in  China.  This  difference  is 
wholly  due  not  to  his  individual  character,  but  to  that 
of  the  community,  which  he  has  taken  no  real  part  in 
determining.  It  is  not  the  character  of  the  ten  or 
twenty  per  cent,  but  those  of  the  eighty  or  ninety  per 
cent,  that  determines  the  socially  accepted  standard 
of  living  in  any  class  or  country.  It  will  be  seen, 
therefore,  that  if  an  eight-hour  system  only  applies 
to  a  small  fraction  of  the  laboring  class,  it  might  not 
produce  any  permanent  effect  upon  the  general  rate  of 
wages,  or  even  appreciably  change  that  of  those  who 
are  directly  affected  by  it. 

But  if  it  was  applied  to  the  whole  nine  and  one  half 
millions  of  laborers  in  this  country,  or,  as  we  propose 
to  do — apply  it  to  the  whole  thirty-six  millions,  who 
with  their  families  embrace  nearly  all  of  the  lower  half 
of  the  entire  population  in  this  country,  France,  and 
Germany — it  would  generate  a  social  force,  the  full  eco- 
nomic influence  of  which  it  is  impossible  to  contem- 
plate. 

The  influence  of  the  change  here  proposed  would 
be  even  greater  upon  the  children  than  upon  the 
adults  for  two  reasons  :  (i)  Because  the  character  of 
children  under  the  age  of  fifteen  is  much  more  sus- 
ceptible to  social  influences  than  that  of  older  per- 
sons. (2)  Because  the  children  will  be  under  the  ele- 
vating influences  of  educational  institutions  a  portion 


THE  EFFECT  OF  HALF-TIME  SCHOOLS.  263 

of  each  day.  By  this  means,  within  a  single  decade 
every  laborer  of  twenty  years  of  age,  both  in  this 
country  and  in  Europe,  would  have  had  five,  and  many 
of  them  seven  or  eight  years'  daily  contact  with  the 
educational,  moral,  and  social  influences  of  school 
life.  It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  the  necessary  conse- 
quence of  the  general  adoption  of  the  half-time  school 
system  alone  would  be  not  only  to  greatly  improve 
and  elevate  the  home,  but  to  almost  revolutionize  the 
domestic  and  social  atmosphere  of  the  masses  within 
a  single  generation. 

The  advance  of  the  general  rate  of  wages,  conse- 
quent upon  a  higher  standard  of  living,  would  produce 
a  corresponding  increase  in  the  general  demand  for 
commodities  in  the  four  greatest  wealth-consuming 
nations  in  the  world.  The  satisfaction  of  these  new 
wants  would  create  a  permanent  international  market 
for  new  products  more  than  equal  to  that  of  the  en- 
tire population  of  this  country,  which  would,  in  turn, 
create  new  industries  and,  therefore,  new  employ- 
ments, and  further  increase  the  demand  for  labor. 
But,  it  may  be  asked,  will  not  this  increased  demand 
for  labor  and  rise  in  wages  involve  a  corresponding 
rise  of  prices  ?  We  answer  No  !  Indeed,  that  would 
not  be  a  rise  in  real  wages,  because  if  the  prices  of 
commodities  increased  in  the  same  proportion  that 
wages  rose,  the  laborer  would  obtain  no  more  wealth 
for  a  day's  work  than  formerly,  and  therefore  would  be 
economically  and  socially  no  better  off.  But,  it  may 
be  replied,  "you  laid  it  down  in  a  previous  chapter, 
that  prices  were  determined  by  the  cost  of  production, 
and  that  the  controlling  element  in  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction is  wages.  If  this  be  true,  does  it  not  fol- 
low  that   an   increase    of  wages    involves    a   rise   of 


264  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

prices?"     Paradoxical  as  it  may  appear,  we  again  an- 
swer No  ! 

It  is  true  that  we  laid  it  down  that  prices  are  deter- 
mined by  the  cost  of  production,  and  that  the  cost  of 
production  is  governed  by  wages,  and  that  if  wages 
were  arbitrarily  and  locally  increased,  it  might  and 
probably  would,  temporarily  at  least,  tend  to  raise 
prices.  It  will  be  remembered,  however,  that  we  also 
explained  that  the  increased  consumption  of  wealth 
accompanying  a  general  rise  of  real  wages  tends  to 
promote  the  use  of  improved  machinery — or  a  greater 
concentration  of  capital  in  production,  and  in  that  way 
therefore  cheapens  the  cost— which  always  tends  to 
reduce  prices,  and  is  the  same  as  a  still  further  increase 
of  real  wages.  The  larger  the  market  the  lower  the 
price,  is  one  of  the  best-established  principles  in  polit- 
ical economy,  as  well  as  one  of  the  best-attested  facts 
in  economic  history.  The  successful  use  of  improved 
machinery,  which  is  the  only  means  of  permanently 
reducing  the  cost  of  production  and  lowering  prices,  is 
possible  only  with  the  use  of  large  capitals  and  exten- 
sive production.  It  is  equally  true  that  the  use  of 
large  capitals  and  extensive  production  is  compatible 
only  with  a  large  aggregate  consumption  of  wealth, 
which  nothing  but  a  high  standard  of  living  can  sustain. 
Obviously,  therefore,  whatever  tends  to  increase  the 
aggregate  consumption  of  wealth  per  capita  neces- 
sarily tends  to  reduce  the  cost  of  production  and  lower 
prices.  This  explains  why  the  comforts  and  luxuries 
-'  of  life  are  cheaper  in  England  now,  with  labor  at  five 
shillings  a  day,  than  they  were  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
with  labor  at  less  than  sixpence  a  day,  and  why  wealth 
can  be  produced  cheaper  in  America  at  two  dollars  a 
day  than  in  China  at  ten  cents. 


ADVANCE  OF  REAL   WAGES.  265 

It  becomes  clear,  then,  that  the  uniform  adoption  in 
the  United  States,  England,  France,  and  Germany  of 
an  eight-hour  system  would  rapidly  abolish  enforced 
idleness  and  able-bodied  pauperism,  tend  to  continu- 
ally extend  the  consumption  and  production  of  wealth, 
increase  the  comfort,  education,  and  culture  of  the 
masses,  and  permanently  advance  real  wages,  without 
arbitrarily  disturbing  existing  institutions. 


13 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE  EFFECT  OF  AN  EIGHT-HOUR  LAW  UPON  PROFITS. 

If  it  were  true,  as  taught  by  orthodox  economists, 
that  "  profits  fall  as  wages  rise,"  the  fact  that  a  reduc- 
tion of  the  hours  of  labor  would  tend  to  increase  wages 
would  be  a  sufficient  reason  why  the  employing  class 
should  oppose  it,  as  they  almost  invariably  have  done. 
The  logic  of  this  theory  is  that  the  economic  interests 
of  the  wages  and  profit-receiving  classes  are  necessarily 
antagonistic  to  each  other.  This  doctrine,  like  all 
error,  cuts  more  than  one  way.  While  it  has  served 
its  obvious  purpose  in  supplying  the  employing  class 
with  a  defence  for  their  almost  universal  endeavor  to 
keep  down  wages,  it  has  at  the  same  time  laid  the 
foundation  and  furnished  the  arguments  for  that  most 
erroneous  belief  among  the  masses  that  the  profit- 
receiver  is  their  natural  economic  enemy  ;  hence,  to 
foil  or  despoil  him,  by  whatever  means,  is  to  promote 
their  interest. 

This  unfortunate  view,  which  has  been  so  fertile  in 
promoting  the  use  of  the  most  uneconomic  means  for 
social  and  industrial  reform,  has  led  the  more  mod- 
ern economists  to  give  a  somewhat  modified  rendering 
of  the  doctrine,  asserting  that  "  capital  and  labor  are 
allies^  not  enemies,'*  While  this  presentation  has  a 
more  satisfactory  seeming,  upon  examination  it  will 
be  found  to  contain  the  real  error  of  the  Ricardo- 
Mill  theory.     For,  although  it  affirms,  correctly,  that 


A   PLAUSIBLE  ERROR.  267 

the  laborer  and  employer  are  natural  allies,  whose 
economic  interests  are  inseparable,  it  is  always  upon 
the  presumption  that  the  success  of  the  alliance  pri- 
marily depends  upon  the  prosperity  of  the  capitalist  or 
employer.  Whereas,  the  reverse  is  true,  and,  as  else- 
where explained,*  the  prosperity  of  the  employing  and 
mercantile  classes  ultimately  depends  upon  that  of  the 
laboring  class — upon  the  economic  capacity  of  the 
masses  to  consume  wealth. 

There  is  a  certain  sense  in  which  the  Ricardo-Mill 
theory  has,  at  least,  a  plausible  appearance  of  truth. 
For  example,  if  it  cost  in  raw  material,  building 
machinery,  etc.,  sixty  cents  a  pair  to  manufacture 
shoes,  and  they  could  be  sold  at  one  dollar,  clearly 
forty  cents  a  pair  would  remain  to  be  divided  between 
the  laborer  and  his  employer.  In  whatever  propor- 
tion this  surplus  is  divided  between  wages  and  profits, 
if  all  other  things  remain  the  same,  Mr.  Ricardo's 
statement  that  a  rise  of  wages  is  a  fall  of  profits,  and 
vice  versd,  would  be  correct.  Assuming  each  received 
twenty  cents  a  pair,  it  is  a  mere  matter  of  mathematics 
to  see  that,  if  wages  rose  to  twenty-five  cents,  profits 
must  at  the  same  time  and  for  that  very  reason  fall  to 
fifteen  cents  a  pair.  Consequently,  if  wages  could  be 
reduced  to  five  cents  a  pair,  profits  would  rise  to 
thirty-five  cents  a  pair.  This  appears  plausible,  and 
even  conclusive,  and  has  been  generally  accepted  as 
unanswerable. 

It  will  be  remembered,  however,  that,  clear  as  all 
this  seems,  it  is  true  only  provided  that  something 
else  is  true — viz.,  that  all  other  things  remain  the  same 
— i.e.y  if  the  same  number  of  shoes  could  be  sold  at 

*  Chapter  II.,  Part  I. 


268  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

the  same  price.  This,  however,  is  a  condition  which 
never  is  and  never  can  for  any  considerable  time  exist. 
If  the  shoes  were  exclusively  consumed  by  a  commu- 
nity which  had  no  economic  relations  with  that  which 
produced  them,  this  would  be  possible.  If,  for  in- 
stance, all  the  shoes  could  be  consumed  by  the  people 
of  another  planet,  or  by  a  people  who  are  so  remote, 
geographically  and  socially,  from  the  scene  and  con- 
ditions of  production  that  the  wages  of  the  laborers 
who  made  them  formed  no  part,  directly  or  indirectly, 
of  the  market  in  which  they  were  sold,  such  a  condi- 
tion might  prevail. 

This,  however,  is  almost  an  economic  and  social  im- 
possibility. If  the  laborer  was  merely  a  factor  in  pro- 
duction and  exercised  no  influence  upon  consumption, 
as  he  has  been  so  commonly  regarded,  all  this  might 
be  true  ;  but  as  the  consumption  of  the  laboring 
classes  constitutes  the  preponderating  element  in  the 
general  market  for  commodities — and  as  the  laborer  is 
constantly  increasing  as  a  factor  in  consumption  and 
decreasing  as  a  direct  factor  in  production,  as  fast  as 
improved  machinery  is  adopted — the  possibility  of 
"  other  things  remaining  the  same,"  when  wages  are  re- 
duced, is  constantly  becoming  more  and  more  out  of  the 
question.  In  other  words,  the  quantity  of  shoes  that 
can  be  sold  and  the  price  that  can  be  obtained  for  them 
— the  extent  of  the  market — is  becoming  to  depend 
more  and  more  upon  the  consumption  or  wages  of  the 
laborer.  Therefore,  a  reduction  of  wages  directly  tends 
to  limit  the  market  for  commodities. 

If  the  demand  for  shoes  is  lessened,  the  manufac- 
turer is  soon  forced  either  to  sell  fewer  shoes  or  sell 
them  at  a  lower  price.  In  either  case,  the  actual 
amount  of  profit  he  will  receive,  as  well  as  the  rate  per 


FALL  OF  WAGES  NOT  A  RISE  OF  PROFITS.       269 

dollar  invested,  will  be  reduced.  Therefore,  to  say  that 
a  reduction  of  wages,  **  other  things  being  the  same," 
means  a  rise  of  profits,  is  essentially  false,  because  the 
only  condition  upon  which  such  a  result  can  follow  is 
one  that  is  never  present,  in  any  general  sense. 

The  error  involved  in  this  doctrine  appears  to  arise 
mainly  from  the  mistake  of  regarding  wealth  as  a  fixed 
instead  of  a  varying  quantity.  If  the  question  of  wages 
and  profits  was  a  matter  of  the  division  of  a  given 
amount  of  wealth  already  in  existence,  the  distribution 
of  which  had  no  influence  upon  future  production,  this 
theory  might  have  some  force.  But  when  it  is  a  ques- 
tion of  the  distribution  of  wealth,  the  amount  of  which 
in  the  future  depends  upon  how  that  now  existing  is 
distributed,  as  it  always  does  in  an  industrial  society, 
the  case  is  very  different.  One  is  a  question  of  arith- 
metical division,  and  the  other  one  of  economic  law. 
It  is  only  with  the  latter  that  economic  science  is  con- 
cerned and  in  which  the  community  is  interested. 
Clearly,  therefore,  as  profits  depend  upon  the  extent 
and  continuity  of  the  demand  for  commodities,  which, 
in  turn,  depends  mainly  upon  the  consumption  or 
wages  of  the  laboring  classes,  a  fall  of  wages  cannot  in 
any  general  sense  tend  to  promote  a  rise  of  profits. 
The  concern  of  the  laborer  is  not  so  much  as  to 
whether  he  shall  have  one  or  three  dollars  a  day,  but 
as  to  the  actual  amount  of  wealth  he  can  finally  obtain 
for  a  day's  labor.  For  the  same  reason,  the  manufac- 
turer has  no  special  interest  in  a  high  rate  of  profit. 
What  he  really  wants  is  a  large  actual  incogie.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  community  has  no  special  interest  in 
reducing  the  actual  income  of  the  manufacturer.  Its 
only  concern  is  to  increase  its  own.  This  result,  how- 
ever, is  compatible  only  with  an  increase  in  the  gen- 


270  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

eral  rate  of  real  wages.  Low  wages  involve  a  rela- 
tively small  aggregate  consumption,  which  always  im- 
plies slow  methods  of  production,  and  slow  methods 
of  production  make  a  high  rate  of  profit  inevitable, 
even  to  obtain  a  small  income. 

Suppose  a  manufacturer  of  shoes,  in  order  to  live 
according  to  the  accepted  standard  of  his  class,  was 
forced  to  charge  a  profit  of  ten  cents  a  pair  ;  and  if,  by 
using  improved  machinery,  he  could  make  the  same 
shoes  for  one  third  less,  and  be  enabled  to  sell  twice  as 
many,  he  could  reduce  the  price  of  the  shoes  to  the 
consumer,  and  actually  obtain  more  wealth  per  day  for 
himself  at  a  profit  of  six  cents  a  pair,  than  he  had  pre- 
viously done  with  his  small  production  at  a  profit  of 
ten  cents  a  pair.  It  will  be  observed  that  this  can 
only  occur  according  as  the  aggregate  demand  for 
commodities  (real  wages)  is  increased  ;  which  is  pre- 
cisely what  has  always  taken  place  just  in  proportion 
as  wages  or  the  demand  per  capita  of  the  population 
has  increased.  This  explains  why  the  manufacturer 
of  to-day  is  actually  richer  with  a  profit  of  two  cents  a 
pound  on  cotton  cloth  than  he  was  fifty  years  ago  with 
a  profit  of  more  than  double  that  amount. 

Thus  it  is  clear  that  by  the  increased  aggregate  pro- 
duction, consequent  upon  the  larger  general  demand 
for  commodities  (higher  wages),  all  classes  would  be- 
come actually  richer.  The  laborer  would  get  more 
wealth  through  his  increased  wages — the  general  con- 
sumer would  obtain  more  through  lower  prices — and 
the  manufacturer,  while  receiving  a  smaller  per  cent  of 
the  total  product  in  profits,  will  actually  obtain  a  greater 
quantity  of  wealth  through  the  larger  productions  and 
extended  business. 

This  principle  is  fully  illustrated  by  the  experience  of 


SHORT  HOURS  NO  INJURY   TO   CAPITAL.       271 

England,  where  the  hours  of  labor  are  shorter  and  the 
wages  higher  than  in  any  country  in  Europe  ;  and  the 
increase  in  the  use  of  capital  and  the  production  of 
wealth  per  capita  is  greater  than  in  any  country  in  the 
world.*  Instead  of  English  products  being  under- 
sold by  those  of  the  long-hour  and  low-paid  conti- 
nental laborers,  it  is  to  protect  themselves  against  the 
competition  of  the  products  of  the  nine  and  one  half 
hour  laborers  of  England  that  the  high  tariffs  are  im- 
posed in  every  country  on  the  continent,  and  in  this 
country  as  well.  We  are  not  afraid  to  compete  with 
the  products  of  the  thirteen  to  sixteen-hour  labor  of 
Russia,  Austria,  and  Italy,  but  it  is  the  products  of 
England,  where  the  hours  of  labor  are  the  least  of 
those  in  any  country  in  the  world,  that  we  are  most 
anxious  to  exclude. 

The  fact  that  a  diminishing  per  cent  of  the  total 
product  goes  to  profits  is  not  an  economic  disadvan- 
tage to  the  capitalist,  for  the  reason  that  while  a 
smaller  per  cent  of  the  aggregate  wealth  will  go  for 
profits,  the  relative  size  of  the  profit-receiving  class  is 
diminishing  in  a  still  greater  ratio.  Hence,  the  capi- 
talists are  becoming  both  absolutely  and  relatively 
richer  and  relatively  fewer  in  number  as  the  aggregate 
wealth  increases. 

This  being  the  natural  result  of  a  general  rise  of 
wages,  which  in  the  last  chapter  we  have  seen  would 
be  the  logical  consequence  of  the  adoption  of  an  eight- 
hour  system,  it  follows  that  the  economic  effect  upon 
profits  by  the  adoption  of  that  system  w^ould  be  to 
diminish  profits  relatively  to  the  aggregate  wealth  and 
population,  and  to  increase  them  actually  and  relatively 

*  See  Chapter  VIIL,  Part  III.,  pp.  336,  338. 


272  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

to  the  number  of  the  profit-receiving  class.  In  other 
words,  it  would  tend  to  reduce  profits  in  proportion  to 
the  wealth  and  number  of  those  by  whom  they  are 
paid,  and  to  increase  them  in  proportion  to  the  num- 
ber by  whom  they  are  received. 

Obviously,  therefore,  it  would  tend  to  improve  the 
economic  and  social  condition  of  the  laboring  classes  with- 
out  injurijtg  that  of  the  capitalist.  In  order  to  procure 
the.  full  advantages  of  this  measure  without  incurring 
the  temporary  disadvantages  incident  to  all  social 
changes,  two  conditions  are  necessary,  both  of  which 
are  attainable  :  (i)  That  its  adoption  be  general,  and 
(2)  That  it  be  gradual. 

The  adoption  of  this  measure  should  be  general, 
because  all  its  important  economic  effects  to  which 
we  have  referred  arise  from  its  influence  upon  the 
general  social  character  of  the  masses,  which,  to  be 
effectual,  must  necessarily  be  general ;  at  least,  it 
must  be  sufficiently  so  to  be  national.  Not  that  it 
would  be  entirely  useless  to  reduce  the  hours  of  labor 
in  a  single  city,  industry,  or  state,  but  the  temporary 
disadvantages  would  be  greater,  and  the  permanent 
benefits  arising  therefrom  would  be  not  only  very 
much  less,  but  very  much  less  in  proportion  to  the 
number  affected  by  it.  Thus,  e.g.,  if  it  were  adopted 
simultaneously  in  America,  England,  France,  and 
Germany,  it  would  permanently  affect  the  social  at- 
mosphere of  the  masses  over  the  best  part  of  the  civ- 
ilized world.  The  economic  effect  of  so  extensive  an 
influence  would  probably  be  ten  times  greater  than  if 
it  were  only  adopted  in  any  one  of  those  countries. 
And  if  it  were  applied  to  the  whole  ten  millions  of 
wage  laborers  in  this  country,  the  econotnic  advantages 


THE  DUTY  OF  EMPLOYERS.  273 

would  be  proportionately  very  much  greater  than  if  it 
were  only  applied  to  one  million  of  laborers. 

As  the  economic  and  social  benefits  of  an  eight- 
hour  and  half-time  system,  to  all  classes,  increase  in 
proportion  as  its  application  is  extended,  it  is  clearly 
to  the  interest  of  the  employing  classes  to  use  their 
social  and  political  influence  to  secure  its  general  uni- 
form adoption.  By  so  doing  they  would  eliminate 
much  of  the  class  feeling  from  the  social  controversy, 
destroy  the  excuse  for  revolutionary  methods,  and 
help  the  masses  to  take  the  first  step  in  true  social 
reform,  by  means  of  which  the  economic  condition  of 
all  classes  would  be  permanently  promoted  without 
injury  to  any. 

(2)  Its  adoption  should  be  gradual. 

The  charge  that  an  abrupt  reduction  of  three  hours 
a  day  would  be  inimical  to  business,  and  hence  to 
profits — at  least  temporarily — is  the  most  valid  of  any 
objection  that  is  urged  against  this  measure.  It  is  a 
well-established  fact  in  economics  that  any  sudden 
disturbance  of  industrial  relations,  however  sound  in 
principle  it  may  be,  would,  for  the  time  being,  have 
an  injurious  effect  upon  business.  Witness  financial 
panics,  sudden  inflation,  contraction  of  the  cur- 
rency, etc.  Some  such  result  might  be  temporarily 
produced  by  the  sudden  adoption  of  a  general  eight- 
hour  system.  But  this  can  easily  be  avoided  by 
providing  that  it  go  into  operation  gradually — say 
half  an  hour  a  day  every  six  months.  By  this  means 
it  would  take  three  years  to  get  the  measure  in  full 
operation,  during  which  time  industrial  relations 
would  naturally  be  adjusted  without  serious  incon- 
venience or  injury  to  any  class  in  the  community. 


CHAPTER   V. 

WHAT  WOULD   BE    ITS  EFFECT   UPON  RENT? 

Rent,  as  we  have  elsewhere  explained,  sustains 
substantially  the  same  economic  relation  to  wages  as 
do  profits.**  Therefore,  for  all  practical  purposes, 
the  real  answer  to  the  above  question  is  given  in  the 
preceding  chapter,  and  need  detain  us  but  a  few  mo- 
ments here. 

The  value  of  land  is  governed  by  the  same  general 
causes  as  that  of  commodities.  Consequently,  rent  is 
subject  to  the  same  social  and  economic  influences  as 
profits.  Indeed,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term,  it  is 
profit.  For  the  same  reason  that  the  laborer  will  not 
devote  his  efforts  to  production  without  wages,  and 
the  capitalist  devote  his  capital  without  profit,  will  no 
one  pay  rent  for  land,  either  for  the  purposes  of  agri- 
culture, manufacture,  or  commerce,  unless  it  will  reim- 
burse him  for  his  outlay,  and  afford  him  something  for 
his  trouble. 

Whether  land,  for  whatever  purpose  it  is  used,  will 
do  that,  depends  upon  the  social  character  and  wealth- 
consuming  capacity  of  the  community.  No  matter 
how  fertile,  or  conveniently  situated  for  manufacturing 
or  commercial  purposes,  land  may  be,  it  will  yield 
no   rent  unless  the  results  of  its   use  or   cultivation 

*  For  a  full  consideration  of  the  question  of  Rent  and  Profits,  the 
reader  is  referred  to  the  next  volume,  where  a  chapter  is  devoted  to 
each  subject. 


RENT  FINALLY  DEPENDS  ON  WAGES.  275 

are  demanded  in  sufficient  quantities  and  at  such 
prices  as  will  pay  for  all  the  labor,  risk,  and  enterprise 
devoted  to  its  production. 

And  this  effective  demand,  as  we  have  so  often 
pointed  out,  is  finally  determined  by  the  wants  or 
socially  accepted  standard  of  living  of  the  people.  In 
other  words,  rent,  like  profit,  primarily  depends  upon 
the  consumption  of  wealth  per  capita  of  the  population, 
or  the  real  wages  of  the  masses,  actually  rising  and 
relatively  falling  as  wages  are  increased.  This  explains 
why  the  actual  rent-roll  of  the  community  increases 
as  civilization  advances.  Nor  is  this  inimical  to  the 
interests  of  the  laborer  or  the  community,  as  is  so 
commonly  claimed  by  the  leading  socialistic  reform- 
ers and  their  confiding  followers. 

The  statement  persistently  proclaimed  by  Henry 
George,  on  the  one  hand,  that  a  rise  of  rent  implies  a 
fall  or  prevents  a  rise  of  wages,  and  that  of  Karl 
Marx,  on  the  other  hand,  that  extreme  wealth  at  one 
pole  of  society  implies  extreme  poverty  at  the  other, 
are  both  essentially  false.  As  we  explained  in  the  last 
chapter  in  relation  to  profit,  these  claims  would  be 
true  if  it  were  a  question  of  a  mere  division  of  a 
fixed  quantity  already  in  existence.  If  we  were  con- 
sidering the  division  of  a  given  estate  among  a  fixed 
number  of  people,  or  the  apportionment  of  the  booty 
in  a  community  of  brigands,  there  would  be  consider- 
able force  to  this  claim,  because  in  such  cases  it  would 
be  a  mere  matter  of  mathematics.  Consequently,  the 
more  one  portion  obtained  of  the  estate  or  booty,  the 
less  there  would  be  for  the  others.  Whether  the  wealth 
thus  obtained  should  be  wasted  or  wisely  consumed 
would  not  affect  the  amount  received,  for  the  reason 
that  it  is  procured  by  gift  or  plunder.    This,  however, 


276  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

could  not  be  true  in  any  industrial  community,  where 
wealth  is  produced  as  the  economic  consequence  of 
consumption  or  the  effectual  demand,  and  distributed 
through  the  natural  equity  of  exchange,  under  the  free 
operation  of  social  and  economic  forces.  Indeed,  it 
could  be  possible  only  where  wealth  is  obtained  by  the 
process  of  taking  something  for  nothing.  We  are 
often  referred  to  the  history  of  Rome  as  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  truth  of  the  affirmation,  that  the  increase 
of  wealth  among  the  upper  classes  necessarily  involves 
an  increase  of  the  poverty  of  the  lower.  Probably 
Rome  is  the  strongest  case  that  could  be  cited  in  sup- 
port of  that  position,  and  at  first  sight  it  seems  con- 
vincing. A  moment's  reflection,  however,  will  suffice 
to  show  that  instead  of  sustaining  the  conclusion  of 
either  Marx  or  George,  it  affords  a  complete  confir- 
mation of  our  own  view.  Rome  was  notoriously  a  mili- 
tary and  not  an  industrial  State.  She  obtained  the 
bulk  of  her  wealth  not  by  productive  industry,  but 
by  organized  brigandage.  The  most  pronounced  trait 
in  the  Roman  character  was  contempt  for  industry. 
Nothing  could  be  more  degrading  in  the  eye  of  Roman 
society  than  to  be  engaged  in  an  industrial  or  com- 
mercial pursuit."*^  Those  who  produced  wealth  re- 
ceived nothing  but  social  contempt,  while  those  who 
were  most  successful  in  confiscating  the  property  of 
others  received  all  the  honors  and  emoluments  of  the 
state.  The  little  wealth  that  was  produced  was  wrung 
from  slaves  under  such  debasing  and  brutalizing  con- 
ditions that  they  were  unable  to  reproduce  their  kind 


*  Augustus  is  said  to  have  pronounced  the  sentence  of  death  upon 
Senator  Ovinius  for  "  having  so  degraded  himself  as  to  engage  in 
manufacture." 


ROME  AN  UNECONOMIC  STATE.  277 

as  fast  as  they  died  off,  and  their  numbers  could  only 
be  kept  up  by  the  enslavement  of  the  people  whose 
countries  they  had  conquered  and  whose  wealth  they 
had  confiscated.  In  short,  Rome  was  economically  a 
colossal  highwayman,  who  lived  mainly  upon  the  plun- 
der and  forced  tribute  from  her  neighbors.  For  these 
reasons,  it  is  true  that  to  the  extent  that  the  wealth  of 
Rome  was  the  result  of  military  instead  of  industrial 
effort,  the  opulence  of  the  rich  did  increase  the  poverty 
of  the  poor.  To  that  extent  did  it  tend  to  promote 
waste,  dissipation,  and  social  and  moral  degeneracy 
among  the  upper  classes,  and  weakness  and  disloyalty 
among  the  lower  classes.  Hence,  when  the  confisca- 
ble wealth  of  the  neighboring  countries  began  to  di- 
minish, the  fall  of  her  power  became  inevitable. 

Thus,  while  under  Rome  it  was  to  a  considerable 
extent  true  that  extreme  wealth  at  one  pole  of  society 
implied  extreme  poverty  at  the  other,  it  was  due  to 
the  fact  that  Rome  was  a  military  instead  of  an  in- 
dustrial society,  because  she  obtained  her  wealth  by 
plunder  instead  of  by  production.  Consequently,  its 
distribution  was  not  the  result  of  the  free  operation 
of  social  and  economic  forces,  but  of  arbitrary  ap- 
portionment by  authority,  which  is  just  what  state 
socialists  are  demanding  to-day.  Economically,  Rome 
may  be  said  to  have  had  very  little  in  common  with 
modern  society.  Therefore,  instead  of  che  history  of 
Rome  serving  as  an  illustration  of  the  necessary  con- 
sequence of  present  industrial  tendencies,  it  much 
more  correctly  foreshadows  what  might  naturally  be 
expected  from  the  arbitrary  inauguration  of  state 
socialism. 

In  fact,  the  assumption  that  the  increase  of  the 
wealth  of  the  modern  capitalist  is  tending  to  produce 

^^ 

OP  TH«     '^ 


278  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

the  same  economic  and  social  results  as  did  that  of  the 
Roman  patrician,  implies  the  inability  to  distinguish 
between  the  effects  of  arbitrary  division  and  that  of 
economic  law,  the  social  influences  of  which  are  as 
opposite  as  those  of  industry  and  piracy. 

The  fact  that  the  aggregate  rent-roll  of  a  country  is 
increasing  does  not  necessarily  imply  that  the  wages 
and  profit  rolls  are  diminishing,  nor  even  that  their 
increase  is  lessened  on  that  account.  But,  on  the  con- 
trary, in  an  industrial  community  an  increase  in  the 
aggregate  rent-roll  always  implies  an  increase  in  that 
of  wages  and  profits  also. 

Economically,  rent  can  no  more  precede  profits  than 
profits  can  precede  wages.  For  the  same  reason  that 
the  laborer  cannot  continuously  devote  his  effort  to 
any  purpose  which  will  not  yield  him  a  living  (wages), 
will  the  enterpriser  or  capitalist  refuse  to  pay  rent  for 
land,  the  use  of  which  will  not  yield  a  profit,  or,  at 
least,  secure  him  against  the  ordinary  risks  of  losing 
his  capital. 

It  follows,  therefore,  that  a  permanent  increase  in 
the  aggregate  rents  of  a  community  is  impossible  with- 
out a  previous  increase  in  the  aggregate  profits.  An 
increase  in  the  aggregate  profits  is  equally  impossible 
without  an  extension  of  the  general  market,  which, 
in  turn,  depends  upon  an  increase  in  the  general  con- 
sumption by  the  masses.  Moreover,  the  socially 
accepted  standard  of  living,  which  constitutes  the  bed- 
rock of  the  general  rate  of  wages,  being  an  insepara- 
ble part  of  the  civilization  of  the  community,  cannot 
be  lowered  without  a  disruption  of  society.  Indeed,  a 
general  permanent  reduction  of  real  wages  is  an  eco- 
nomic impossibility.  Therefore,  an  increase  in  the 
aggregate  rents  of  a  community   is  impossible  with- 


A  RISE  OF  RENT  IMPLIES  A  RISE  OF  WAGES.  279 

out  an  increase  in  the  aggregate  production  of 
wealth. 

Thus,  from  whatever  point  we  approach  this  subject, 
we  are  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the  actual  increase 
of  rents  is  only  compatible  with  higher  wages — i.e., 
the  increase  in  the  economic  ability  of  the  masses  to 
consume  wealth.  Hence,  instead  of  the  general  rise 
of  real  wages  being  inimical  to  the  interests  of  the 
rent-receiving  classes,  it  is  the  only  means  by  which 
their  aggregate  incomes  can  be  increased  with  safety 
to  themselves  and  advantage  to  the  community. 

Again,  the  principle  that  economic  law  always  oper- 
ates to  the  ultimate  advantage  of  the  great  mass,  and 
not  to  that  of  a  small  class  of  the  community,  is  just 
as  true  of  rents  as  it  is  of  profits.  The  actual  increase 
in  the  aggregate  rent-roll,  arising  from  the  causes  to 
which  we  have  referred,  takes  a  constantly  diminishing 
per  cent  of  the  total  wealth  produced.  Thus,  while 
rents  absolutely  rise,  they  relatively  fall  with  the  in- 
creased consumption  of  wealth  (real  wages),  because 
the  aggregate  products  are  increased  in  a  much  greater 
ratio. 

The  truth  of  this  is  demonstrated  in  the  history  of 
every  industrial  community  in  the  world.  The  merely 
nominal  rent  of  the  country  merchant  or  manufacturer 
takes  a  much  larger  percentage  out  of  his  small  busi- 
ness than  does  the  apparently  fabulous  rents  paid  in 
New  York  City.  The  simple  reason  for  this  is  that  the 
latter,  being  in  close  proximity  to  a  much  larger  con- 
sumption, does  a  larger  business  per  dollar  invested 
than  the  former.  This  explains  why  nearly  all  manu- 
factured products  are  cheaper  in  the  city,  where  the 
rents  are  actually  the  highest,  than  in  the  country, 
where  they  are  the  lowest.     In  other  words,  the  rents 


2  8o  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

which  are  actually  the  highest  are  relatively  the  low- 
est— i.e.^  they  take  the  smallest  per  cent  of  the  wealth 
of  those  who  pay  them. 

If  we  compare  the  aggregate  product  per  capita  of 
the  population  with  that  of  the  rent-roll  at  different 
periods  in  any  industrial  community,  the  operation  of 
this  law  will  at  once  be  manifest.  There  is,  perhaps, 
no  country  where  the  question  of  rent  has  been  so 
widely  discussed  and  where  the  income  of  the  land- 
owner has  been  regarded  so  inimical  to  industrial  and 
social  progress  as  in  England  ;  and  there  is,  outside  of 
the  United  States,  certainly  no  country  where  real 
wages  and  the  aggregate  production  of  wealth  have 
increased  to  so  great  an  extent.  Indeed,  it  is  to  that 
country,  above  all  others,  to  which  Mr.  George  most 
delights  to  refer  as  especially  illustrating  the  truth  of 
his  often-repeated  but  most  fallacious  statement,  that 
rent  swallows  up  the  whole  gain  of  increased  produc- 
tive power,  and,  consequently,  poverty  and  pauperism 
increase  with  progress.*  Now,  if  we  compare  the 
rent-roll  with  the  aggregate  wealth  produced  in  that 
country  at  different  periods  during  the  last  two  hun- 
dred years,  we  shall  find  that  it  completely  illustrates 
the  operation  of  the  law  we  have  laid  down. 

Just  before  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  ac- 
cording to  the  best  authorities  of  that  period  (Daven- 
ant  and  Gregory  King),  the  total  agricultural  produce, 
including  pasture  and  forest  land,  was  estimated  at 
twenty-one  million  and  seventy-nine  thousand  pounds, 
and  the  total  rent  at  nine  million  four  hundred  and 
eighty  thousand  pounds,t  a  little  over  forty-five  per 
cent  of  the  whole  produce. 

*  "  Progress  and  Poverty,"  pp.  ii,  12,  i6a,  163. 
f  Davenant's  Works,  Vol.  IV.,  p.  70. 


THE  MO  VEMEN  T  OF  RENT.  2  8 1 

About  a  century  later  (1779),  according  to  Arthur 
Young,^  the  total  produce  was  estimated  at  seventy- 
two  million  eight  hundred  and  twenty-six  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  twenty-seven  pounds,  and  the  gross 
rental  at  nineteen  million  two  hundred  thousand 
pounds,  or  about  twenty-six  and  one  half  per  cent  of 
the  produce. 

Sixty-three  years  later  (1842-43),  McCulloch  f  esti- 
mated the  total  produce  at  one  hundred  and  forty-one 
million  six  hundred  and  six  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  fifty-seven  pounds,  and  the  total  rent-roll  at  thirty- 
seven  million  seven  hundred  and  ninety-five  thousand 
nine  hundred  and  five  pounds,  or  twenty-five  and  one 
tenth  per  cent  of  the  whole  produce.  And  in  1880, 
thirty-eight  years  later,  Mulhall  estimated  the  total 
agricultural  produce  at  two  hundred  and  seventy  mill- 
ion pounds,  and  the  aggregate  rental  at  fifty- eight 
million  pounds,  or  a  little  less  than  twenty-two  per 
cent  of  the  whole.  Thus,  while  the  rent-roll  has  in- 
creased six  hundred  per  cent,  the  product  from  which 
it  is  paid  has  increased  twelve  hundred  and  fifty  per 
cent.  In  other  words,  the  proportion  of  the  total 
agricultural  produce  paid  in  rent  has  diminished  during 
the  last  two  hundred  years  from  forty-five  to  twenty- 
two  per  cent,  or  over  one  half. 

If  we  include  the  land  used  for  manufacturing  and 
commercial  purposes,  which  pays  the  highest  of  actual 
rents,  we  shall  find  the  same  law  holds  true.  Accord- 
ing to  authorities  already  referred  to,  at  the  close  of 
the  Revolution  (1689)  the  annual  produce  of  all  kinds 
was  put  down  in  round  numbers  at  forty-three  million 


Political  Arithmetic"  (1779).  Part  II.,  pp.  27-31. 
Statistical  Account  of  the  British  Empire,"  3d  ed.,  p.  553* 


282  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS, 

pounds,  and  the  total  rent-roll  at  ten  million  pounds,* 
or  a  little  over  twenty-three  per  cent  of  the  whole  prod- 
uce of  the  country.  In  1882  the  total  produce  was 
estimated  at  one  billion  two  hundred  million  pounds,t 
and  the  total  rental  at  one  hundred  and  thirty-one 
million  four  hundred  and  six-eight  thousand  two  hun- 
dred and  eighty-eight  pounds,  or  about  eleven  and 
ninety-five  one  hundredths  per  cent  of  the  whole  prod- 
uct of  the  country. 

Thus,  while  the  aggregate  rental  has  increased  about 
thirteen  hundred  per  cent,  the  total  product  has  in- 
creased within  a  fraction  of  twenty-eight  hundred  per 
cent.  In  other  words,  while  rents  have  absolutely  in- 
creased over  thirteenfold  relatively  to  the  wealth  pro- 
duced, they  have  fallen  about  fifty-five  per  cent. 

From  this  it  is  evident  that  in  proportion  as  the 
standard  of  living  of  the  masses  has  risen — the  gen- 
eral consumption  and  consequent  production  of  wealth 
increased — the  land-owning,  like  the  profit-receiving 
class,  has  become  actually  richer,  but,  at  the  same 
time,  it  obtains  a  smaller  per  cent  of  the  total  wealth 
produced.  This  being  true,  it  follows  that  the  eco- 
nomic effect  of  the  rise  of  wages,  which  we  have  seen 
would  result  from  the  general  adoption  of  an  eight- 
hour  system,  is  positively  favorable  to  the  interests  of 
both  the  profit  and  rent-receiving  classes. 

From  whatever  point  of  view  the  proposition  for  a 
general  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor  is  considered, 
it  will  be  seen  that  its  economic  effect  is  to  promote 
the  industrial  progress,  not    merely  of  the  laboring 

*  Davenant's  Works,  Vol.  IV.,  p.  71. 

f  This  estimate  was  based  upon  Mulhall's  figures  for  18S0,  which 
put  the  total  product  at  one  billion  one  hundred  and  fifty-six  million 
pounds. — ^'Balance  Sheet  of  the  World,"  p.  33. 


RISE  OF  WAGES  NOT  INIMICAL   TO  RENT       283 

class,  but  of  the  whole  community.  Indeed,  were  it 
otherwise,  it  would  not  be  a  real  reform.  There  can 
be  no  permanent  improvement  in  the  economic  and 
social  condition  of  any  one  class  which  is  obtained  at 
the  expense  of  another.  That  is  why  true  social  im- 
provement can  never  be  promoted  by  any  method  of 
redistribution  of  existing  wealth,  however  well  in- 
tended or  seemingly  equitably  apportioned  it  may  be. 
Redistribution  is  necessarily  arbitrary,  wasteful,  and 
unjust.  In  fact,  it  is  one  of  the  best-established  prin- 
ciples in  economic  science  that  wealth  can  never  be 
economically,  and,  therefore,  equitably  and  wisely  dis- 
tributed, except  in  the  natural  process  of  its  production. 
It  is  equally  true  that  no  progress  can  be  real  and  per- 
manent which  does  not  tend  to  ultimately  improve  the 
condition  of  all  the  economic  elements  in  the  com- 
munity ;  and  this  obviously  necessitates  an  increase  in 
the  aggregate  quantity  of  wealth  produced. 

There  are  two  conditions  essential  to  any  proposi- 
tion for  the  promotion  of  the  industrial  and  social  wel- 
fare of  the  masses  :  (i)  That  it  must  operate  upon  and 
through  the  subtle  and  unconscious  influences  of  eco- 
nomic law ;  and  (2)  That  it  must  automatically  tend  to 
increase  the  total  production  of  wealth.  Unlike  all 
propositions  for  the  arbitrary  manipulation  of  indus- 
trial interests,  the  measure  we  have  proposed  com- 
pletely conforms  to  both  of  these  conditions.  It 
involves  no  arbitrary  disturbance  of  any  socially 
recognized  vested  interests,  nor  would  it  precipitate 
any  sudden  change  in  the  prevailing  industrial  and 
social  institutions.  It  is  directed  to  and  relies  wholly 
upon  the  automatic  but  unrestricted  operation  of  eco- 
nomic and  social  forces.  All  that  it  asks  is  that  the 
laborer  slvall  have  a  little  more  leisure  time,  by  means 


284  WEALTH  AND   PROGRESS. 

of  which,  as  we  have  shown,  he  not  only  couldj  but 
necessarily  would,  gradually  be  brought  into  more  fre- 
quent contact  with  an  increasing  variety  of  social  in- 
fluences. The  natural,  and  therefore  necessary,  ten- 
dency of  this  would  be  to  eliminate  enforced  idle- 
ness and  able-bodied  pauperism — the  gradual  but 
general  development  of  the  wants  and  standard  of  liv- 
ing of  the  masses — the  increased  consumption  of 
wealth,  and,  consequently,  the  use  of  improved  ma- 
chinery— the  use  of  large  capitals  and  the  larger  ag- 
gregate production  of  wealth,  yielding  higher  wages 
to  the  laborer  and  lower  prices  to  the  consumer — a 
larger  aggregate  but  smaller  rate  of  profit  to  the 
capitalist  and  rent  to  the  landowner — thus  naturally 
improving  the  economic  conditiori  of  all  classes  in  the 
community  without  injuring  that  of  any. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

THE   FEASIBILITY   OF   SHORT-HOUR  LEGISLATION. 

Section  I. — History  of  Factory  Legislation  in  England 
from  1800  to  1840. 

After  all,  the  question  of  adopting  an  eight-hour 
system  must  turn  largely  upon  its  feasibility.  Its 
economic  and  social  advantages  previously  pointed 
out  being  conceded,  if  the  obstacles  to  its  practical 
application  were  such  as  to  ultimately  neutralize  its 
benefits,  as  its  opponents  would  fain  have  us  believe, 
its  importance  as  a  measure  of  social  reform  would 
be  destroyed.  Fortunately,  however,  the  answer  of 
experience  confirms  in  full  its  feasible  character. 
A  uniform  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor,  the  regu- 
lation of  the  labor  and  education  of  working  chil- 
dren, and  the  sanitary  and  other  conditions  of  mines, 
factories,  and  workshops,  is  not  an  untried  experiment. 
This  system  does  not  introduce  any  new  principle 
into  society,  but  it  is  only  the  scientific  application  of 
one  which,  though  never  understood,  experience  has 
demonstrated  to  be  indispensable  to  social  progress. 
It  has  been  adopted  more  or  less  extensively  in  dif- 
ferent countries,  and  wherever  its  application  has 
been  sufficiently  general  to  exercise  any  appreciable 
economic  or  social  influence,  the  effect  has  always 
been  of  the  most  encouraging  character. 

A  ten-hour  law,  with  half-time  schools  for  working 


286  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

children,  has  been  in  operation  to  a  h'mited  extent  in 
England  for  forty  years,  and,  without  half-time  schools, 
for  thirteen  years  in  Massachusetts.  Although  in  both 
countries  it  was  adopted  for  humanitarian  and  not  for 
economic  reasons,  despite  the  pessimistic  prophecies 
of  its  enemies,  after  having  been  tried  for  nearly  half 
a  century  in  the  former  and  more  than  a  decade  in 
the  latter,  its  beneficial  effect  upon  the  material,  edu- 
cational, and  social  conditions  of  the  masses  is  unquali- 
fiedly attested  to  in  the  official  public  documents  of 
both  countries.  Indeed,  it  is  the  only  kind  of  indus- 
trial legislation  that  has  ever  stood  the  test  of  experi- 
ence. Wherever  it  has  been  adopted,  to  any  consider- 
able extent,  its  success  has  more  than  sustained  the 
claims  of  its  most  sanguine  friends.  Its  good  effect 
has  not  only  completely  answered  the  objections  and 
exploded  the  false  predictions  of  its  enemies,  but  in 
many  cases  it  has  converted  them  into  its  ardent 
friends. 

England  was  the  cradle  of  the  factory  system.  It 
was  there  that  the  spinning-jenny,  the  spinning-frame, 
the  power-loom,  and  the  steam-engine  were  brought 
into  existence.  It  was  there  that  machinery  was  first 
brought  into  general  use,  and  the  division  of  labor  be- 
came possible.  It  was  also  there  that  the  political 
economy  originated  out  of  which  grew  the  blind  in- 
dustrial policy  of  sacrificing  human  beings  to  produce 
and  save  wealth,  instead  of  using  wealth  to  save  and 
improve  human  beings.  Hence,  it  was  naturally  there 
that  the  evils  growing  out  of  the  excessive  toil  of 
women  and  children  in  the  polluting  atmosphere  of 
the  factory  and  workshop  first  forced  themselves  upon 
the  attention  of  statesmen. 

In  the  name  of  humanity  and  decency,  legislation 


FACTORY  OPERATIVES'    CONDITION-  IN  1800.    287 

upon  the  hours  of  labor  began  to  be  demanded  at  the 
very  commencement  of  the  present  century — indeed, 
as  soon  as  the  factory  system  had  become  fairly  organ- 
ized. At  that  time  (1800)  before  any  legislation  re- 
ducing the  hours  of  labor,  providing  half-time  schools 
for  working  children,  or  in  any  other  way  increasing 
the  social  opportunities  of  the  masses  had  been 
adopted,  the  social  condition  of  the  factory  operatives 
in  the  north  of  England  was  very  little,  if  any,  better 
than  that  of  the  agricultural  laborers  of  the  south.* 

The  conditions  under  which  the  factory  population 
in  England  at  that  time  lived  and  labored  was  such 
that  I  have  no  power  to  adequately  describe  it.  In 
the  earlier  years  of  the  factory  system,  before  steam- 
power  was  much  used,  factories  were  driven  by  water, 
and  had,  therefore,  to  be  located  on  the  banks  of 
streams,  mostly  in  the  country.  The  inventions  of 
Hargreaves  and  Arkwright  made  it  possible  to  employ 
a  large  number  of  children  and  women  in  productive 
industries.  The  opposition  of  the  spinners  and  hand- 
loom  weavers  to  the  use  of  the  new  machines,  which 
they  regarded  as  their  deadly  enemy,  was  such  that 
for  a  time  it  was  difficult  to  obtain  a  sufficient  number 
of  children,  minors,  and  women  to  run  the  machines, 
especially  as  the  factories  were,  for  the  most  part, 
located  in  sparsely-populated  districts.  Accordingly, 
the  apprentice  system,  which  had  been  in  vogue  since 
the  early  days  of  Elizabeth,  in  all  the  branches  of 
artisan  labor,  was  applied  to  the  factory  operatives. 

Under  these  circumstances,  in  order  to  keep  down 


*  Rogers  thinks  the  condition  of  the  factory  operative  was  even 
worse  than  that  of  the  agricultural  laborer  at  that  time.  See  "  Work 
and  Wages,"  p.  495. 


288  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS, 

the  "poor  rates,"  the  inmates  of  the  poor-houses  were 
forced  into  the  factories.  The  poor-law  authorities 
transferred  (practically  sold)  pauper  children  to  distant 
manufacturers,  whose  only  responsibility  was  to  fur- 
nish such  food,  clothing,  and  shelter  as  was  indis- 
pensable to  keep  them  in  working  condition. 

With  this  almost  absolute  power  over  the  laborers, 
the  manufacturers  were  enabled  to  compel  the  oper- 
atives to  work  under  whatever  conditions  and  as  many 
hours  as  they  chose,  without  let  or  hindrance.  Ac- 
cording to  the  testimony  taken  before  Parliamentary 
committees,  and  from  other  ofificial  statements  upon 
the  subject  at  that  time,  women  and  children,  from 
seven  years  of  age  and  upward,  were  compelled  to 
work  under  the  most  unwholesome  and  immoral  con- 
ditions from  fourteen  to  sixteen  hours  a  day,  and  in 
some  cases  more,  often  forcing  the  children  to  work 
part  of  the  day  on  Sunday.*  The  debasing  conse- 
quence of  these  conditions  was  such  that,  in  1802,  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  who  was  one  of  the  largest  cotton  manu- 
facturers in  England,  introduced  a  bill  into  Parliament 
reducing  the  time  of  labor  for  apprentices  in  factories 
to  twelve  hours  per  day.  This  bill,  which  was  regarded 
as  very  radical,  if  not  revolutionary,  provided  :  (i) 
For  the  washing  and  ventilation  of  factories.  (2)  For 
the  proper  clothing  of  the  apprentices.     (3)  For  the 


*  "  Every  Sunday  children  are  employed  in  cleaning  the  machinery. 
Their  orders  are  to  work  from  six  to  twelve  at  noon.  I  have 
known  children  to  work  for  three  weeks  together  from  five  in  the 
morning  till  nine  or  ten  o'clock  at  night,  with  the  exception  of  one 
hour  for  meals.  I  have  frequently  found  the  children  asleep  on  the 
mill  floor." —  Testimony  of  John  Moss,  a  manager  of  mill  apprentices  at 
Backbarrow,  before  Sir  Robert  PeeFs  Committee,  1816.  Sec  Grant's 
**  History  of  Factory  Legislation  in  England,"  p.  10. 


THE  FACTORY  LAW  OF  1802.  289 

limitation  of  their  labor  to  twelve  hours  per  day.  (4) 
For  the  instruction  of  apprentices  in  reading  and  writ- 
ing during  the  first  four  years  of  their  apprenticeship. 
(5)  For  the  separation  of  the  sexes.  (6)  For  Sunday 
instruction  for  apprentices  and  attendance  at  divine 
service.  (7)  For  justices  at  quarter  sessions  to  appoint 
persons  to  visit  such  factories.  This  bill  became  a 
law,  and,  although  its  provisions  relating  to  the  sani- 
tary condition  of  the  factories,  the  education  of  the 
apprentices,  etc.,  were  never  enforced,  it  accomplished 
one  important  result  :  it  practically  reduced  the 
working  time  of  the  operatives  about  two  hours  a 
day,  and  greatly  reduced,  if  it  did  not  abolish,  Sunday 
and  night  work  for  women  and  children. 

Simple  and  limited  as  this  law  was,  its  beneficial 
effect  upon  the  operatives  soon  became  apparent,  as 
the  testimony  of  physicians,  overseers,  and  others 
before  Parliamentary  committees  conclusively  show.* 

This  kind  of  legislation  at  that  time,  as  it  has  ever 
since,  met  with  the  bitterest  opposition  from  the  manu- 
facturing and  employing  classes.  Consequently,  every 
opportunity  was  taken  to  defeat  or  evade  it.  A  few 
years  after  the  passage  of  this  law  a  circumstance  oc- 
curred which  greatly  favored  the  designs  of  the  manu- 
facturers to   escape   from  what   they  regarded   as  the 

*  "  Having  the  assistance  of  Dr.  Percival  and  other  eminent  medical 
gentlemen  of  Manchester,  together  with  some  distinguished  characters 
both  in.  and  out  of  Parliament,  I  brought  in  a  bill  in  the  forty-second 
year  of  the  king  (1802)  for  the  regulation  of  factories  containing  such 
parish  apprentices.  The  hours  of  work  allowed  by  that  bill  being 
fewer  in  number  than  those  formerly  practised,  a  visible  improve- 
ment in  the  health  and  general  appearance  of  the  children  soon  be- 
came evident,  and  since  the  complete  operation  of  the  act  contagious 
disorders  have  rarely  occurred." — Speech  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  before  the 
Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons,  May  21,  18 16. 
14 


29©  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

terrible  hardships  this  legislation  imposed  upon  them. 
The  improvement  of  the  steam-engine  by  James  Watt, 
which  had  adapted  it  to  the  production  of  rotary- 
motion,  and  its  application  to  the  driving  of  the  new 
machines,  including  the  power-loom,  finally  became 
practicable  in  1806,  and  relieved  the  manufacturer  from 
his  dependence  upon  the  water-wheel  and  the  country 
stream  for  his  motive  power. 

With  this  improvement  in  motive  power,  it  became 
possible  for  the  first  time  to  build  factories  in  the  midst 
of  populous  towns  and  drive  them  by  steam.  The 
factory  was  thus  brought  to  the  door  of  the  mass  of 
the  laboring  population.  It  now  became  possible  for 
children  to  work  in  the  factories  and  live  at  home 
with  their  parents,  and  thereby  avoid  the  necessity, 
and  with  it  the  hardships,  of  the  apprenticeship  sys- 
tem. Much  as  the  manufacturers  wanted  the  absolute 
control  over  the  children  which  that  system  gave 
them,  they  had  a  still  stronger  desire  to  get  from  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  law,  which  prevented  them  from 
working  children  more  than  twelve  hours  a  day,  and 
prohibited  their  employment  nights  and  Sundays. 
Accordingly,  as  the  factory  system  extended — and  it 
grew  very  rapidly  at  this  period — the  factories  became 
centred  mainly  in  the  large  towns. 

By  this  means  the  employers  were  enabled  to  obtain 
the  labor  of  children  without  apprenticeship  con- 
ditions. They  could  also  procure  a  larger  number  of 
them  than  were  to  be  had  in  the  rural  districts.  Thus 
the  master  succeeded  in  getting  entirely  outside  the 
purview  of  the  factory  law,  at  the  same  time  avoiding 
all  responsibility  for  the  food,  clothing,  shelter, 
health,  and  education  of  the  working  children.  The 
consequence  was  that,  with  something  of  the  zest  that 


THE  EVASION   OF    THE  LAW.  291 

the  cannibal  devours  the  flesh  of  his  fellow-man,  the 
manufacturers  returned  to  the  long-hour,  Sunday,  and 
night  work  system,  with  all  its  barbarities.* 

Fortunately,  however,  sufficient  time  had  elapsed 
before  the  return  to  the  old  system  could  become 
general  to  enable  the  advantages  of  the  reduced 
hours  to  be  established  beyond  doubt.  This  was  clear 
to  all  except  the  manufacturers,  who,  like  their  breth- 
ren of  to-day,  erroneously  believed  their  interests  to  be 
on  the  side  of  long  hours  and  oppressive  conditions 
for  the  laborers. 

The  employers  had  now  escaped  even  the  little  re- 
sponsibility for  the  life  and  physical  condition  of  the 
children  imposed  by  the  apprentice  system.  A  few 
years  of  real  laissez  faire^  however,  was  sufficient  to 
demonstrate  the  evils  of  the  unlimited-hour  system. 

For  the  same  reason  that  to  be  remanded  back  into 
slavery  is  more  galling  than  to  never  have  been  free, 
to  return  to  the  unlimited-hour  system,  after  having 
had  a  taste  of  the  advantages  of  a  short-hour  factory 
law,  seemed  even  worse  than  the  old  regime.  The 
greater  speed  of  the  steam  machinery  became  an  in- 
creased tax  upon  the  energies  of  the  operatives. 
The  effect  upon  the  physical  condition,  to  say  noth- 

*  **  Large  buildings  are  now  erected,  not  only,  as  formerly,  on  the 
banks  of  streams,  but  in  the  midst  of  populous  towns,  and,  instead  of 
parish  apprentices  being  sought  after,  the  children  of  the  surrounding 
poor  are  preferred^  whose  masters,  being  free  from  the  operation  of 
the  former  act  of  Parliament,  are  subjected  to  no  limitation  of  time  in 
the  prosecution  of  their  business,  though  children  are  frequently  ad- 
mitted there  to  work  thirteen  to  fourteen  hours  per  day  at  the  tender 
age  of  seven  years,  and  even  in  some  cases  still  younger.  I  need 
not  ask  the  committee  to  give  an  opinion  of  the  consequences  of  such 
a  baneful  practice  upon  the  health  and  well-being  of  these  little  crea- 
tures."— Speech  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  before  Parliamentary  Committee,  1816. 


292  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

ing  of  the  moral  and  social  state  of  the  operatives, 
especially  the  children  and  women,  was  such  as  to 
challenge  the  attention  and  enlist  the  sympathy  of  the 
most  indifferent  classes.  Despite  the  fact  that  Eng- 
land was  then  engaged  in  a  deadly  war  with  Napoleon, 
upon  the  result  of  which  the  fate  of  civilization  itself 
seemed  to  hang,  the  cries  of  the  factory  children  were 
distinctly  heard,  and  the  demand  for  a  reduction  of 
the  hours  of  labor  for  women  and  children  again  forced 
itself  upon  the  attention  of  statesmen. 

Accordingly,  in  1815,  Sir  Robert  Peel  again  came  to 
the  front  as  the  champion  of  short-hour  legislation. 
In  that  year  he  introduced  into  the  House  of  Com- 
mons a  motion  for  the  appointment  of  a  committee  to 
**  inquire  into  the  expediency  of  applying  the  appren- 
ticeship act  to  children  of  every  description."  This 
committee  continued  to  take  evidence  upon  the  sub- 
ject for  three  years,  the  result  of  which  may  be  found 
in  the  reports  of  Parliamentary  proceedings  for  18 16, 
1817,  and  18 18.  The  effect  was  that,  in  18 19,  a  law 
was  passed  extending  the  provisions  of  the  apprentice- 
ship act  (of  1802),  not  only  to  all  children  employed 
in  cotton  factories,  but  also  prohibiting  the  employ- 
ment of  children  altogether  under  nine  years  of  age, 
and  limiting  the  labor  of  all  under  sixteen  to  twelve 
hours  a  day,  or  seventy-two  hours  a  week,  exclusive 
of  meals. 

The  beneficial  effect  of  this  measure  upon  the 
operatives  soon  became  so  manifest  that  it  greatly 
strengthened  the  efforts  of  its  friends,  and  modified 
the   opposition    of   its   enemies.*      This   was    clearly 

*  "  Meagre  as  were  its  provisions,  there  was  soon  a  sensible  improve- 
ment in  the  health  and  appearance  of  the  children,  and  both  masters 


THE   TWELVE-HOUR  LAW  OF  1819.  293 

shown  by  the  fact  that  after  passing  four  amendments 
to  this  act,  in  order  to  make  it  more  valid  and  effective 
in  its  operations,  in  1825  another  law  was  passed  still 
further  reducing  the  hours  of  labor. 

The  measure,  which  was  known  as  "  Sir  John  Hob- 
house's  bill,"  reduced  the  working  time  of  the  oper- 
atives from  twelve  to  eleven  and  one  half  hours  a  day, 
or  to  sixty-nine  instead  of  seventy-two  per  week. 
The  constant  improvement  in  the  laborer's  condition 
and  the  absence  of  injury  to  the  capitalists  which 
accompanied  this  legislation  was  so  marked  that  al- 
though, with  a  few  exceptions,  it  was  bitterly  opposed 
by  the  political  economists  and  manufacturers,  it 
steadily  grew  in  public  favor.  Encouraged  by  this 
fact,  the  friends  of  reform  began  to  renew  their  efforts 
for  a  more  extensive  application  of  this  legislation. 
Accordingly,  in  1829,  the  work  was  vigorously  taken 
up  by  the  Manchester  "Short-time  Committee." 
Such  was  the  popular  response  to  the  work  of  the 
committee,  that  in  1 83 1  Sir  John  C.  Hobhouse  in- 
troduced a  measure  embodying  their  claims,  which 
was  seconded  by  Lord  Morpeth.  This  bill  proposed  : 
(i)  That  the  hours  of  labor  should  be  reduced  to 
eleven  per  day,  or  sixty-six  per  week.  (2)  That  it 
should  include  all  minors  under  eighteen  years  of  age, 
instead  of  sixteen,  as  formerly.  (3)  That  night-work 
should  be  abolished  for  women  and  all  persons  under 
twenty-one  years  of  age  ;  and  (4)  That  its  operation, 
together  with  that  of  all  previous  factory  legislation, 
should  be  extended  to  woollen,  worsted,  linen,  and 
silk,  as  well  as  cotton  factories. 


and  men  became  more  reconciled  to  factory  legislation." — Gmnfs 
'*  History  of  Factory  Legislation  in  England,''  p.  14. 


294  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

This  raised  a  degree  of  opposition  among  the 
woollen,  linen,  and  silk  manufacturers  hitherto  un- 
precedented. They  organized,  held  public  meetings, 
and  drew  up  a  series  of  fourteen  resolutions  appeal- 
ing to  the  public,  and  Parliament  in  particular,  to 
save  them  from  the  calamities  which  would  befall 
them  and  the  whole  industrial  community  if  this 
measure  should  become  a  law.  They  dolefully  set 
forth,  as  they  do  now,  that  to  lessen  the  hours  of  labor 
would  reduce  the  wages  and  increase  the  hardships  of 
the  poor.  They  also  predicted  that  it  would  raise  the 
price  and  diminish  the  sale  of  manufactured  products, 
thereby  destroying  the  profits  of  the  manufacturers 
and  driving  capital  from  the  country,  the  result  of 
which  would  be  to  afiflict  the  people  with  all  the  ills 
in  the  calendar  of  industrial  calamities.*  The  conse- 
quence was  that  they  succeeded  in  defeating  that  clause 
of  the  bill  which  extended  its  application  to  woollen, 
linen,  silk,  and  other  industries. 

This  was  a  serious  blow  to  the  measure,  but  it  still 
reduced  the  working  time  in  the  cotton  industry  from 
eleven  and  one  half  to  eleven  hours  per  day,  and  was  ap- 
plied to  all  under  eighteen  instead  of  sixteen  years  of 
age,  and  also  prohibited  night-work  for  all  under 
twenty-one  years  of  age. 

Having  secured  this  much,  the  friends  of  reform  de- 
cided to  make  another  effort  to  obtain  the  lost  portion 
of  their  measure.  The  benefit  of  each  instalment  of 
social  opportunity  thus  acquired  was  so  manifest  in 
the  improved  condition  of  the  operatives,  that  it 
steadily  gained  in   its  hold   upon  the  sympathy  and 


*  See  Grant's   "  History   of  Factory  Legislation,"  pp.  22,  23,  24, 

25,  26. 


THE    CHILD  LABOR  LA  W  OF  1833.  295 

support  of  the  public.  The  movement  had  now 
reached  the  point  where  it  had  the  endorsement  and 
active  support  of  several  prominent  persons  among 
the  wealthy  classes,  foremost  among  whom  was  Lord 
Ashley  (afterward  Earl  Shaftesbury). 

In  1833  Lord  Ashley  introduced  a  bill  to  reduce 
the  hours  of  labor  for  women  and  minors  in  manufac- 
turing establishments  to  ten  per  day.  In  order  to 
avoid  the  passage  of  what  they  regarded  as  a  radical 
and  dangerous  measure,  the  Government  promised  a 
bill  dealing  with  the  whole  subject.  The  result  was 
that  Lord  Althorpe,  then  Prime  Minister,  finally  in- 
troduced a  bill  reducing  the  hours  of  labor  for  children 
to  eight  per  day,  with  two  hours'  schooling  each  day. 
This  act  also  provided  that  its  own  provisions  and 
those  of  all  previous  factory  acts  should  be  applied  to 
all  textile  industries  except  silk,  and  accomplished 
the  object  of  Mr.  Hobhouse's  act,  which  the  manu- 
facturers defeated  two  years  before.  This  was  a 
greater  step  forward  in  short-hour  legislation  than  its 
friends  were  then  prepared  to  admit.  While  it  did 
not  make  a  very  material  reduction  in  the  working 
time  of  operatives  in  cotton  factories,  its  extension  to 
the  woollen,  worsted,  and  flax  mills  greatly  increased 
the  number  of  operatives  to  whom  this  legislation  ap- 
plied. Thus  to  a  very  large  number  of  workers  it 
was  a  reduction  of  working  time  two  hours  a  day. 
The  extent  to  which  such  legislation  is  applied  is  often 
more  important  than  the  degree  in  which  the  hours 
are  reduced. 

The  fact,  however,  that  the  last-named  act  reduced 
the  working  time  of  the  children  to  eight  hours  a 
day,  while  all  the  others  were  working  eleven,  created 
a  disproportion  in  the  working  time,  which  was  very 


296  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

inconvenient  to  the  manufacturers.  This  was  made  a 
pretext  on  the  part  of  the  employers  for  the  starting 
of  a  movement  to  repeal  the  law. 

Meantime,  however,  a  very  much  larger  portion  of 
the  laboring  people  had  begun  to  receive  the  actual 
benefits  of  the  reduced  hours  of  labor,  and  the  good 
effects  of  the  law  were  so  obvious  as  to  be  admitted 
by  all  classes  in  the  community,  except  manufacturers 
and  political  economists,  who  were  never-failing  in 
their  opposition. 

Accordingly,  the  mere  mention  of  an  attempt  to 
repeal  the  law  was  the  signal  for  a  simultaneous  out- 
burst of  indignation  throughout  the  manufacturing  dis- 
tricts. Instead  of  consenting  to  a  plan  for  equalizing 
the  hours  of  labor  by  increasing  those  of  the  children, 
as  demanded  by  the  manufacturers,  the  operatives 
proposed  to  accomplish  that  result  by  reducing  the 
hours  of  the  adults. 

Two  opposite  movements  were  now  set  on  foot,  one 
for  the  repeal  of  the  law  reducing  the  working  hours 
of  children,  and  the  other  to  extend  it.  The  former 
was  supported  by  the  wealth,  intelligence,  and  social 
influence  of  the  manufacturers,  and  the  latter  by  the 
zeal  and  earnestness  of  the  factory  operatives,  led  by 
Lord  Ashley  and  a  few  men  of  means  and  character 
in  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire.  The  community  con- 
stituted the  jury  to  which  the  case  was  submitted. 
The  masters*  side  consisted  mainly  in  prophesying 
that  industrial  depression,  poverty,  social  degradation, 
and  national  dishonor  would  speedily  befall  the  coun- 
try if  the  children  were  not  permitted  to  work  eleven 
hours  a  day.  On  the  other  hand,  the  operatives 
pointed  to  the  results  of  factory  legislation  in  the  past. 
They  triumphantly  referred  to  the  fact  that  each  re- 


VICTORY  FOR    THE   OPERATIVES  IN  1839.       297 

duction  of  the  hours  of  labor,  even  when  it  was  con- 
fined to  cotton  factories,  was  followed  with  marked 
benefits  to  the  operatives  and  without  injuring  the 
employers.  When  it  was  extended  to  the  woollen, 
flax,  and  other  industries,  the  benefits  were  even  more 
than  proportionately  greater.  Thus,  while  the  claims 
of  the  advocates  of  short-hour  legislation  had  been 
approximately  sustained  in  every  instance,  the  evil 
prophecies  of  their  opponents  had  as  frequently  proved 
to  be  nothing  but  the  ghosts  of  their  short-sighted  and 
selfish  fears. 

As  the  agitation  progressed,  the  cause  of  the  opera- 
tives gained  power  in  Parliament  and  popularity  in  the 
country.  In  1839  Lord  Ashley,  as  the  leader  of  the 
people's  cause  in  Parliament,  introduced  a  bill  extend- 
ing the  Factory  Acts  to  silk  mills,  which  had  hitherto 
been  exempt.  After  a  protracted  debate,  the  Govern- 
ment, which  had  always  stood  for  the  employers,  was 
beaten  by  a  majority  of  eleven. 


Section  II. — History  of  the  Half -Time  Law  of  1844 
and  the  Ten-Hour  Law  of  1847. 

In  1840  Lord  Ashley  introduced  a  motion  to  ap- 
point a  committee  to  investigate  the  condition  and 
the  employment  of  children  in  coal  and  iron  mines, 
foundries,  brick-yards,  and  other  industries  not  affected 
by  the  Factory  Acts,  with  the  view  of  bringing  them 
under  the  influence  of  such  legislation,  which  was  also 
adopted. 

From  this  and  other  similar  experiences,  it  became 
clear  to  the  leaders  of  the  "  masters'  "  movement  that 
the  opinion  of  the  jury,  both  in  and  out  of  Parliament, 


298  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

was  steadily  tending  toward  the  side  of  the  operatives, 
and  that  unless  the  case  was  brought  to  an  early  close 
the  verdict  would  be  to  grant  their  whole  claim. 

In  order  to  prevent  this  result,  an  effort  was  made  to 
check  the  operatives'  movement  by  depriving  it  of  its 
most  powerful  leaders.  To  this  end,  in  1841,  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  son  of  the  author  of  the  first  factory  bill, 
offered  Lord  Ashley  a  seat  in  the  cabinet,  that  being 
regarded  as  the  most  effectual  mode  of  disposing  of  a 
powerful  antagonist.  His  lordship,  however,  true  to 
the  cause  he  had  espoused,  would  accept  it  only  on 
condition  that  the  Government  would  introduce  his 
Ten-Hour  Bill.  This  being  the  very  thing  his  entrance 
into  the  cabinet  was  intended  to  avoid,  this  offer  was, 
of  course,  declined,  and  his  lordship  refused  the  office 
and  its  honors,  and  continued  his  work  as  a  commoner 
on  the  floor. 

It  now  became  clear  that  the  only  way  to  avoid  the 
granting  of  the  whole  of  the  operatives'  demands,  and 
pass  a  ten-hour  law,  was  to  offer  a  compromise.  Ac- 
cordingly, in  1843,  Sir  James  Graham,  then  Home 
Secretary,  promised  that  if  Lord  Ashley  would  desist 
in  pressing  his  bill,  the  Government  would  introduce 
a  measure  dealing  with  the  subject. 

After  several  postponements  and  delays,  on  the  6th 
of  February,  1843,  Sir  James  Graham  introduced  a 
bill  reducing  the  working  hours  of  women,  which  had 
hitherto,  like  those  of  men,  been  unhmited,  to  eleven 
per  day.  It  also  reduced  the  working  time  of  children 
from  eight  hours  a  day  to  half  time,  compelling  attend- 
ance at  school  the  other  half.  The  objections  raised 
to  the  previous  law — that  making  irregular  working 
hours  disturbed  the  business — were  entirely  obviated 
by  the  provisions  of  this  act. 


THE  HALF-TIME  BILL  INTRODUCED  IN  1843.     299 

Reducing  the  working  hours  of  children  to  half 
time,  and  prohibiting  the  employment  of  a  child  any 
portion  of  both  forenoon  and  afternoon  in  the  same 
day,  reduced  the  employment  of  children  to  a  simple 
and  uniform  basis.  All  that  was  necessary,  in  order  to 
have  the  time  fully  occupied,  was  to  employ  two  sets 
of  children,  one  to  work  in  the  forenoon  and  the 
other  in  the  afternoon — each  attending  school  the 
alternate  half  day. 

This  measure  contained  two  elements  which  tended 
to  make  its  operation  smooth  and  automatic  :  (i)  The 
attendance  of  the  children  at  school  being  made  an 
indispensable  condition  of  their  employment,  tended 
to  secure  the  aid  of  parents  to  enforce  the  school  law. 
Even  those  parents  who  were  the  most  ignorant  and 
indifferent  to  the  education  of  their  children  now 
became  very  eager  to  keep  them  constant  in  their 
school  attendance,  because  it  was  the  only  means  of 
securing  their  meagre  earnings.  (2)  Two  children 
being  employed,  each  to  work  half  of  the  time,  no 
child  could  be  employed  a  whole  day  without  de- 
priving another  of  half  a  day's  employment.  To  do 
this  would  inflict  the  loss  of  half  a  day's  wages  upon 
the  other  child,  which  would  be  vigorously  resisted. 
The  violation  of  the  law  would  thus  be  exposed, 
and,  indeed,  made  practically  impossible,  by  the  self- 
interest  of  the  operatives  themselves.  In  other  words, 
its  operation  was  substantially  automatic.  These  feat- 
ures, together  with  the  fact  that  the  law  applied  to 
children  in  all  the  leading  industries,  outside  of  agricul- 
ture, made  this  the  most  important  labor  measure  that 
had  ever  been  adopted.  It  provided  a  greater  degree 
of  social  opportunity  for  the  masses  than  the  world 
had  ever  before  seen.     From  this  time  every  work- 


300  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

ing  child  in  England  was  spending  as  much  time  in 
school  as  in  the  workshop.  In  this  way  over-cramming 
in  the  former  and  overwork  in  the  latter  were  safely- 
guarded  against. 

The  foundation  for  a  degree  of  intellectual  and 
social  development  among  the  masses  was  thus  laid 
that  had  never  before  been  dreamed  of.  It  is  from 
the  passage  of  this  law  that  the  educational  and  social 
progress  of  the  English  laboring  classes  really  dates. 
The  extraordinary  benefits  this  measure  conferred 
upon  the  children  soon  conclusively  established  the 
economic  and  social  expediency  of  short-hour  legisla- 
tion. Accordingly,  instead  of  serving  as  a  compromise 
to  head  off  Lord  Ashley's  ten-hour  bill,  as  the  Gov- 
ernment had  supposed,  this  law  had  the  opposite 
effect,  and  made  its  long  delay  an  impossibility. 

Having  secured  this  great  boon  for  the  children,  the 
efforts  to  obtain  a  ten-hour  law,  at  least  for  women 
and  minors  under  eighteen  years  of  age,  were  now 
redoubled.  The  manufacturers  had  grown  more  and 
more  bitter  and  vindictive  in  their  opposition.  In 
their  almost  fanatical  enthusiasm  for  the  repeal  of  the 
corn  laws — the  agitation  for  which  was  then  at  its 
height — they  made  great  pretence  of  sympathy  for  the 
hardships  of  the  poor  ;  yet  they  sneered  at,  ridiculed, 
and  often  personally  abused  all  who  favored  the  de- 
mand of  the  operatives  for  a  ten-hour  law.^ 

*  The  extent  to  which  this  bitter  opposition  was  carried  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  even  John  Bright,  the  Quaker  and  much-lauded  re- 
former, was  so  unrelenting  in  his  opposition  to  the  ten-hour  bill  (he 
was  a  large  manufacturer),  and  became  so  personally  abusive  in  his 
attacks  on  Lord  Ashley  (whose  motives  and  character  were  always 
above  suspicion)  for  his  advocacy  of  that  measure,  that  in  the  House 
of  Commons  he  was  compelled  to  publicly  apologize  for  his  ungentle- 
manly  conduct.    See  Grant's  "  History  of  Factory  Legislation,"  p.  75. 


BITTER   OPPOSITION  .OF  JOHN  BRIGHT.        301 

The  manufacturers  and  free-traders  generally,  led 
by  Cobden,  Bright,  Roebuck,  and  others,  backed  by 
all  the  prominent  political  economists,  who  were  ad- 
vocating cheap  bread  that  they  might  obtain  cheap 
labor,  again  indulged  in  their  doleful  predictions  of 
the  calamities  that  would  befall  the  laborers  and  the 
community  if  this  bill  became  a  law.  If  that  measure 
were  passed  capital  would  leave  the  country,  manu- 
factures would  decline,  England's  power  and  prosper- 
ity at  home  and  her  influence  abroad  would  diminish, 
and  she  would  fall  from  her  high  place  among  nations 
to  that  of  a  third  or  fifth-rate  power  in  Europe.  In 
short,  all  the  evil  prophecies  which  had  been  repeated 
on  every  occasion  since  1802 — not  one  of  which  had 
been  fulfilled — were  again  proclaimed  with  as  much 
vigor  as  if  they  involved  a  new  discovery  or  a  special 
message  of  warning  from  heaven.  Professor  Senior's 
argument — which  was  invented  to  defeat  the  exten- 
sion of  the  elder  Sir  Robert  Peel's  apprentice  law  to 
factory  children  in  1819— "  That  all  the  profit  of  the 
manufacturer  was  made  in  the  last  hour,"  which  if 
taken  off  would  ruin  him — was  urged  with  increased 
vigor  and  emphasis.* 

Fortunately,  however,  the  result  of  the  various 
reductions  in  the  working  time  during  the  previous 
twenty  years  was  such  that  the  operatives  and  their 
friends  had  good  reason  to  remember  it,  as  Lord  Ash- 
ley in  his  speech  (1845)  conclusively  showed.  In  this 
speech,  which  was,  in  many  respects,  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  orations  ever  delivered  in  Parliament,  his 
lordship,  by  data  obtained  from  manufacturers'  books, 
pay-rolls,  and  other  authentic   sources,   exposed   the 

*  See  Hansard's  "  Parliamentary  Debates,"  1842-47. 


30  2  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

fallacies  of  these  sham  prophecies.  He  proved  that 
wages  had  not  fallen,  profits  had  not  been  lessened, 
production  had  not  been  diminished,  and  business 
prosperity  had  not  been  injured.  On  the  contrary, 
he  showed  that  wages  had  advanced,  profits  had  risen, 
prices  fallen,  and  production  greatly  increased  ;  and, 
instead  of  capital  leaving  the  country,  **  we  see  gentle- 
men, brokers,  merchants,  doctors,  lawyers,  drapers, 
tailors,  etc.,  leaving  their  respective  professions  and 
trades,  and  see  them  building  mills  in  almost  every 
town  in  Lancashire."  Referring  to  the  Senior  "  last- 
hour"  subterfuge,  his  lordship  declared  :  "  It  has  al- 
ways been  urged,  and  has  never  been  verified,  and  yet 
experience  should  go  for  something  in  these  great 
considerations.  It  was  broached  in  1816,  repeated 
and  enforced  in  evidence  before  committees  in 
speeches  and  pamphlets  in  18 17,  18 18,  and  18 19,  and 
utterly  refuted  by  the  whole  subsequent  history  of  the 
cotton  trade  from  that  day  to  the  present.  You  had 
no  diminution  of  produce,  no  fall  in  wages,  no  rise  in 
price,  no  closing  of  markets,  no  irresistible  rivalry 
from  foreign  competition,  although  you  reduced  your 
hours  of  working  from  sixteen,  fourteen,  thirteen  to 
twelve  hours  in  the  day.  What  change  has  there  oc- 
curred so  mighty  as  to  prevent  a  similar  result  in 
1845?"* 

While  this  speech  did  not  convert  the  Brights  and 
Cobdens,  it  diminished  the  influence  of  their  oratory 
in  the  community  against  the  ten-hour  movement. 
Although  it  was  then  defeated  by  a  majority  of  sixty- 

*  Hansard's  "  Parliamentary  Debates,"  1844.  See  also  Grant's 
**  History  of  Factory  Legislation,"  pp.  95,  96,  97  ;  Hodder's  "  Life 
of  Earl  Shaftesbury,"  1886,  and  Edinburgh  Review,  April,  1887, 
p.  366. 


THE  TEN-HOUR  LA  W  ADOPTED  IN  1847.        303 

two,  in  1847,  only  two  years  later,  and  three  years 
after  the  passage  of  the  half-time  law,  it  was  adopted 
after  seven  divisions,  in  each  of  which  it  was  carried 
by  an  average  majority  of  over  two  to  one.* 

This  completed  the  reduction  of  the  working  time 
during  the  twenty-eight  years  (18 19  to  1847)  froni  six- 
teen to  five  hours  per  day  for  children  under  thirteen 
years  of  age,  and  from  sixteen  to  ten  hours  per  day 
for  women  and  for  minors  from  thirteen  to  eighteen 
years  of  age.  What  the  effect  of  this  was  upon  the 
industrial  and  social  condition  of  the  masses  we  shall 
see  in  the  next  chapter. 

*  Grant's  "  History  of  Factory  Legislation,"  p.  138. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE   PHENOMENAL    EFFECT    OF  THE    TEN-HOUR  LAW 
AND  HALF-TIME   SCHOOLS  IN  ENGLAND. 

Section  I. — The  Striking  Success  of  these  Laws  Con- 
verted Sir  James  Graham,  Mr.  Roebuck  and  Other 
Opponents. 

The  ten-hour  law  of  1847,  which  did  not  go  into 
full  operation  till  the  first  of  May,  1848,  was  more 
complete  in  its  construction  and  more  extensive  in  its 
application  than  any  previous  legislation  upon  the 
subject.  Factory  inspectors  were  appointed  to  see  to 
its  enforcement,  with  heavy  penalties  for  its  violation. 
Hence,  notwithstanding  the  ingenious  devices  of  mill 
managers  to  evade  the  law,  and  the  skill  of  the  legal 
fraternity  to  wrench  the  virtue  out  of  it,  by  strained 
interpretations  in  their  defence,  it  was  more  literally 
and  uniformly  enforced  than  any  previous  act  had 
been.  Therefore,  the  effects  of  this  law,  together 
with  that  of  1844,  for  half-time  schools,  which  have 
been  in  continuous  operation  ever  since,  may  fairly  be 
taken  as  the  test  of  the  economic  and  social  tendency 
of  short-hour  or  opportunity-creating  legislation. 

The  industrial  history  of  England  from  that  time  to 
this  conclusively  shows  that,  instead  of  verifying  the 
pessimistic  predictions  of  its  enemies— the  Cobdens, 
Brights,  and  Roebucks — it  more  than  justified  the 
claims  of  its  most  ardent  supporters.     The  working 


THE  EFFECT  OF  INCREASED   OPPORTUNITY.  305 

children  in  the  leading  productive  industries  were  now 
for  the  first  time  receiving  an  education  as  the  con- 
dition of  employment.  And  within  a  single  decade  it 
became  a  rare  thing  to  find  an  operative  of  either  sex 
under  twenty  years  of  age  who  could  not  read  and  write. 

By  this  means  the  general  intelligence  of  the  labor- 
ing classes  was  rapidly  developed.  What  the  school- 
ing did  for  the  children  the  increased  social  intercourse 
— for  that,  in  its  broadest  sense,  is  social  education — did 
for  the  adults.  The  increased  leisure,  with  diminished 
exhaustion,  increased  the  opportunity  and  inclination 
of  the  laborer  for  a  greater  variety  of  social  life. 
This,  in  accordance  with  the  principles  we  have  laid 
down  throughout  this  work,  naturally  tended  to  stim- 
ulate and  enlarge  his  social  tastes,  desires  and  wants, 
raise  his  standard  of  living,  and  advance  his  wages. 
It  also  brought  about,  as  a  necessary  consequence,  an 
increase  in  the  consumption  and  production  of  wealth  ; 
it  promoted  the  use  of  improved  machinery,  and  thus 
reduced  prices  without  lessening  the  income  of  the  capi- 
talist, thereby  advancing  the  material  prosperity  and 
also  the  intellectual,  moral,  social,  and  political  prog- 
ress of  the  whole  community. 

And  this  is  what  the  industrial  history  of  England 
since  1850  shows  has  taken  place.  The  marked  im- 
provement in  the  material  and  social  condition  of  the 
laboring  classes  in  all  industries  affected  by  this  legis- 
lation, especially  among  the  factory  operatives,  that 
immediately  followed  these  two  last-named  measures 
— the  half-time  law  of  1844  and  the  ten-hour  law 
of  1847 — ^'^^  such  that  within  less  than  a  decade  and  a 
half  it  had  not  only  sustained  the  claims  of  its  friends, 
but  it  had  completely  silenced,  and,  in  many  cases,  con- 
verted its  most  bitter  enemies  into  positive  advocates. 


3o6  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

In  1859,  eleven  years  after  the  final  passage  of  the 
latter  act,  Mr.  Barker,  chief  of  the  factory  inspectors, 
read  a  paper  on  the  condition  of  the  factory  operative 
before  the  Social  Science  Congress,  held  at  Bradford, 
in  which  he  said  :  "  I  have  thus  given  you  not  only 
the  reiiult  of  my  own  experience,  but  the  local  testi- 
mony of  gentlemen  who  weekly  visit  mills  which  em- 
ploy in  the  aggregate  upwards  of  seventy  thousand  per- 
sons, of  whom  upwards  of  forty  thousand  are  females 
and  forty-five  hundred  are  children,  and  who  all  testify 
to  the  same  fact — viz.,  the  almost  entire  disappearance 
of  deformity  and  the  non-appearance  of  any  other 
disease  specific  to  factory  labor.  And  it  is  exceed- 
ingly gratifying  to  find  that  an  experiment  which  had 
many  opponents  when  it  was  about  to  be  tried  has 
been  productive  of  such  great  benefit  to  the  working 
classes,  without,  I  believe,  an  atom  of  either  personal, 
commercial,  or  national  wrong.  I  venture  to  make 
this  statement  on  three  grounds  :  First,  Because,  al- 
though the  hours  of  work  have  been  very  much  di- 
minished, wages  have  increased  in  some  cases  forty  per 
cent,  and  generally  about  twelve  per  cent,  and  there- 
fore the  means  of  providing  home  comforts  by  the 
people  have  been  multiplied.  Secondly,  Because  it 
has  not  diminished  any  kind  of  textile  production,  and, 
therefore,  it  has  not  injured  our  national  prosperity." 

In  support  of  this  he  quoted  the  immense  increase 
in  manufactured  products  and  commercial  prosperity, 
showing  that  the  volume  of  business  had  nearly  doubled 
from  1844  to  1858,  a  fact  which  has  been  fully  sus- 
tained by  all  subsequent  investigations."'*' 


*  Mulhall,  in  his  "  Progress  of  the  World  in  the  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury," p.  539,  shows  that  the  commerce  of  Great  Britain   not  only 


MR,   ROEBUCICS  CONVERSION:  307 

In  support  of  his  statement  that  the  social  condition 
of  the  masses  had  been  greatly  improved,  he  pointed 
to  the  great  increase  during  the  same  period  of  schools, 
lectures,  public  gardens,  and  other  sources  of  pleas- 
ure,  **  refinement,  and   civilization,  which,"   he  adds, 

only  take  their  date  from  the  possession  of  the  priv- 
ileges which  restricted  labor  conferred  upon  the 
people."  * 

In  i860  a  bill  was  introduced  to  extend  the  Factory 
Acts  to  print  works,  whereupon,  on  March  21,  Mr.  J. 
A.  Roebuck,  who,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  one 
of  the  bitterest  antagonists  the  half-time  and  ten- 
hour  bills  had  to  encounter,  rose  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  pubHcly  apologized  for  his  opposition  to 
those  measures,  and  supported  the  bill.  In  his  speech 
he  said  :  **  I  am  about  to  speak  on  this  question  under 
somewhat  peculiar  circumstances.  Very  early  in  my 
Parliamentary  career  Lord  Ashley,  now  the  Earl  of 
Shaftesbury,  introduced  a  bill  of  this  description.  I, 
being  an  ardent  political  economist,  as  I  am  now, 
opposed  the  measure,  .  .  .  and  was  very  much  influ- 
enced in  my  opposition  by  what  the  gentlemen  of 
Lancashire  said.  They  declared  then  that  it  was  the 
last  half  hour  of  the  work  performed  by  their  opera- 

actually  doubled  during  that  period,  but  that,  including  Ireland,  it  has 
doubled  per  capita  of  the  population.  In  1841  the  commerce  of  Great 
Britain  was  six  pounds  and  three  shillings  per  head  of  the  population, 
and  in  1861  it  was  twelve  pounds  and  ten  shillings.  Thus,  from  three 
years  before  the  passage  of  the  half-time  act  to  two  yearis  after  the 
time  Mr.  Barker  made  the  above  statement,  commerce  had  increased 
six  pounds  and  seven  shillings  per  capita.  In  other  words,  the  vol- 
ume of  trade  increased  from  1841  more  than  twice  as  fast  as  the  pop- 
ulation, while  from  1801  to  1841  it  had  hardly  kept  pace  with  it.  See 
also  his  "  History  of  Prices,"  p.  34,  London,  1885. 
*  Grant's  "  History  of  Factory  Legislation,"  pp.  148,  149. 


3o8  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

lives  which  made  all  their  profits,  and  that  if  we  took 
away  that  last  half  hour  we  should  ruin  the  manufac- 
turers of  England.  I  listened  to  that  statement,  and 
trembled  for  the  manufacturers  of  England  [a  laugh]  ; 
but  Lord  Ashley  persevered.  Parliament  passed  the 
bill  which  he  brought  in.  From  that  time  down  to 
the  present  the  factories  of  this  country  have  been 
under  state  control,  and  I  appeal  to  this  House 
whether  the  manufacturers  of  England  have  suffered 
by  this  legislation.  [Great  cheers.]  But  the  honor- 
able member  for  Manchester  [John  Bright]  still  I  find 
makes  the  same  objection.  He  gets  up  and  prophesies 
all  sorts  of  evil  if  we  interfere  now  ;  but  he  has  kept 
out  of  view  the  evils  for  the  prevention  of  which  we 
are  now  about  to  interfere.  [Cheers.]  .  .  .  But  I  will 
read  some  facts  from  Mr.  Tremenheere's  report,  and 
will  then  appeal  to  the  House  of  Commons,  to  the 
fathers  and  the  brothers  of  English  women  and  chil- 
dren, if  they  will  not  interfere  to  put  down  this  tre- 
mendous evil.  .  .  .  I,  at  least,  will  not  be  a  party  to 
the  perpetration  of  any  such  atrocities  as  I  find  re- 
corded, and  I  do  hope  that  the  gentlemen  of  Eng- 
land will  not  be  parties  to  them,  either.  .  .  .  Hav- 
ing prevented  this  misery  in  the  one  case,  let  us 
interfere  to  prevent  it  in  the  other."  [Great  cheer- 
ing.] * 

Sir  James  Graham,  who,  it  will  be  remembered,  was 
a  no  less  persistent  opponent  to  short-hour  legislation 
than  Mr.  Roebuck,  on  one  occasion  even  threaten- 
ing the  resignation  of  the  ministry  if  Lord  Ashley's 
bill  was  passed,  at  once  congratulated   Mr.  Roebuck, 

♦  Hansard's  "  Parliamentary  Debates,"  i860.  See  also  Grant's 
•*  History  of  Factory  Legislation,"  pp.  149,  150. 


SIR  JAMES  GRAHAM'S  RECANT  A  TION.  309 

and  said  :  **  I  am  glad  that  you  have  read  your  recan- 
tation, and  I  will  read  mine  to-morrow."  * 

On  the  ninth  of  May,  when  the  bill  came  up  for  a 
third  reading,  Sir  James  rose  in  his  place,  and  said  : 
"  I  am  sorry  once  more  to  be  involved  in  a  short-time 
discussion.  I  have,  however,  a  confession  to  make  to  the 
House.  .  .  .  Experience  has  shown  to  my  satisfaction 
that  many  of  the  predictions  formerly  made  against  the 
Factory  Bill  have  not  been  verified  by  the  result ^  as,  on 
the  whole,  that  great  measure  of  relief  for  women  and 
children  has  contributed  to  the  well-being  and  comfort 
of  the  working  classes,  while  //  has  not  injured  their 
masters.  The  enactment  of  the  present  bill  ought  to 
approach  as  nearly  as  possible  the  Factory  Act.  .  .  . 
By  the  vote  I  shall  give  to-night ^  I  will  endeavor  to  make 
some  amends  for  the  course  I  pursued  in  earlier  life  in 
opposing  the  Factory  Bill,  *  * 

Sir  Thomas  Bazley,  a  prominent  manufacturer  in 
Manchester,  also  rose  and  testified  to  the  great  and 
unexpected  advantages  which  had  resulted  from  the 
Factory  Acts. 

In  a  speech  in  the  House  of  Commons,  March  7, 
1864,  Mr.  Gladstone  added  his  testimony  to  the  vir- 
tues of  this  measure,  and  said  :  "  You  have  prohibited 
by  your  Factory  Acts  the  employment  of  children 
beyond  a  certain  number  of  hours,  and  the  employ- 
ment of  young  persons  beyond  a  certain  number  of 
hours.  .  .  .  //  may  be  said  that  the  Legislature  is  now 
almost  unanimous  with  respect  to  the  necessity  which  ex- 
isted for  undertaking  it,  and  with  respect  to  the   ben- 


*  This  statement  of  Sir  James  Graham's  was  publicly  repeated  by 
Mr.  Roebuck  in  a  speech  in  the  Mechanics'  Institute,  Sheffield,  May, 
1864,  and  was  reported  in  the  London  Times. 


3IO  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

eficial  effect  it  has  produced  both  in  mitigating  human 
suffering  and  in  attaching  important  classes  of  the 
community  to  Parh'ament  and  the  Government." 

The  success  of  this  measure  was  not  only  sufficient 
to  disarm  the  opposition  of  the  average  editor,  poli- 
tician, and  manufacturer,  and  convert  the  leading 
statesmen  from  antagonists  to  advocates,  but  it  also 
silenced  the  opposition  of  the  political  economists, 
and  forced  from  the  more  candid  of  them  a  public  en- 
dorsement of  its  economic  and  social  soundness.  Al- 
though every  political  economist  in  England  who 
wrote  before  1850  was  uncompromisingly  opposed  to 
short-hour  legislation,  not  one  who  has  written  since 
1865,  even  of  the  most  ultra  laissez  faire  type,  has 
ventured  to  announce  his  opposition  to  the  Factory 
Acts.  In  fact,  the  ablest  and  most  influential  of 
them,  such  as  Professor  Newmarch,  John  Stuart  Mill, 
Professors  Rogers,  Cairnes,  Jevons,  Mr.  Thornton, 
and  others,  have  frankly  admitted  the  economic  ex- 
pediency of  these  measures,  while  those  of  the  more 
modern  school,  especially  on  the  continent  and  in  this 
country,  who  have  never  been  committed  to  ultra 
laissez  faire,  are  quite  pronounced  in  approval  of 
their  economic  influence. 

The  social  benefits  arising  from  these  measures  are 
still  further  shown  by  their  constantly  growing  popu- 
larity with  all  classes  in  the  community,  which  is  un- 
mistakably indicated  by  the  fact  that  in  1850,  1853, 
1861,  1864,  and  1867  measures  were  passed  further  ex- 
tending the  principle  of  the  ten-hour  law  of  1847  ^^ 
other  industries,  and  in  1874,  while  all  her  commercial 
competitors,  both  on  the  continent  and  in  this  coun- 
try, were  working  from  eleven  to  fourteen  hours  a 
day,   England,  after  thirty  years'   experience  with  a 


NINE  AND  A  HALF  HOURS  PER  DAY.  311 

half-time  industrial  system  for  children,  and  twenty- 
seven  years  with  a  ten-hour  law  for  adults,  further  re- 
duced the  working  time  of  the  operatives  to  nine  and 
a  half  hours  per  day. 


Section  II. — Social  Progress  Shown  by  the  Rise  of 
Wages,  the  Fall  of  Prices,  and  the  Diminution  of 
Illiteracy,  Pauperism,  and  Crime. 

If  we  turn  from  personal  testimony  to  the  uncon- 
scious economic  and  social  data,  we  shall  find  that  the 
answer  is  no  less  emphatic  and  conclusive.  An  ex- 
amination of  the  economic  and  social  condition  of  the 
laboring  classes  from  1850  to  the  present  time  will 
show  that  in  proportion  as  the  increased  leisure  and 
social  opportunity  consequent  upon  fewer  hours  of 
labor  and  half-time  schools  became  general  and  per- 
manent in  their  influence,  the  social  well-being  of  the 
masses  increased.  This  is  shown  (i)  By  the  general 
and  steady  rise  of  wages.  (2)  By  the  increased  pro- 
duction of  wealth  per  capita  of  the  population.  (3) 
By  the  fall  in  prices.  (4)  By  the  increased  general 
intelligence  of  the  masses.  (5)  By  the  decrease  in 
pauperism.     (6)  By  the  diminution  of  crime. 

First,  then,  as  to  wages.  There  has  never  been 
anything  like  an  approximately  complete  statistical 
statement  of  the  rates  of  wages  in  the  different  coun- 
tries from  year  to  year,  or  decade  to  decade.  Indeed, 
we  are  only  just  beginning,  even  in  the  most  civilized 
countries,  to  recognize  the  importance  of  industrial 
statistics.  Hence,  industrial  data  have  hitherto  been 
meagre  and  fragmentary.  Instead  of  the  rates  of 
wages  being  uniformly  taken   for  all  industries  at  the 


312  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

same  time,  as  we  now  take  the  census,  the  work  has 
been  undertaken  in  one  industry  or  locality  for  some 
special  purpose  by  a  public-spirited  person  ;  at  another 
time  or  place  by  a  board  of  trade  or  chamber  of  com- 
merce ;  at  another  by  a  labor  organization  or  scientific 
or  statistical  society,  or  at  another  by  a  parliament- 
ary committee.  For  this  reason,  while  statistics 
have  been  taken  in  all  industries,  and  are,  for  the 
most  part,  quite  reliable,  it  is  difficult  to  obtain  them 
for  all  industries  at  any  one  date,  especially  up  to 
twenty  years  ago. 

As  wages  are  governed  by  social  influences,  it  is  safe 
to  assume,  except  in  case  of  some  special  local  dis- 
turbance, which,  in  relation  to  the  general  rate,  would 
never  be  more  than  a  perturbation,  that  their  tendency 
in  those  industries  not  recorded  was  the  same  or  sim- 
ilar to  that  of  those  which  were. 

I  must  beg  the  indulgence  of  the  reader  for  a  mo- 
ment's digression  here  to  correct  what  I  regard,  to  say 
the  least,  as  a  misleading  method  of  using  statistics, 
especially  in  relation  to  wages.  It  is  literally  true  that 
"  figures  do  not  lie,"  yet  they  may  be,  and  often  are, 
so  used  as  to  warrant  the  statement,  so  often  made, 
**  that  nothing  lies  like  figures."  The  percentage  of 
a  rise  or  fall  in  the  rate  of  wages  will  infallibly  indicate 
the  extent  of  the  movement  in  either  direction  from  a 
given  point.  But  the  same  percentage  of  rise  or  fall 
in  wages  at  different  times  and  places  will  not  neces- 
sarily indicate  the  same  actual  variation  in  each  case, 
unless  the  point  from  which  they  moved  was  identical. 
For  this  reason,  at  one  time  and  place  a  small  actual 
rise  may  show  a  large  percentage  of  increase,  while  at 
another  a  much  larger  actual  rise  may  show  a  very  much 
smaller  percentage  of  increase.     Whether  a  given  ac- 


w 


THE  TRUE  BASIS  FOR  COMPARISON.  313 

tual  increase  or  diminution  in  wages  will  show  a  large 
or  small  percentage  of  rise  or  fall  will  entirely  depend 
upon  whether  the  amount  at  the  point  from  which  the 
variation  took  place  is  large  or  small.  Thus,  while  it 
is  true  that  a  rise  in  real  wages  always  indicates  an  im- 
provement in  the  social  condition  of  the  masses,  the 
extent  of  that  improvement  is  not  always  adequately 
expressed  by  the  percentage  of  the  rise,  but  it  is  al- 
ways infallibly  indicated  by  the  absolute  amount  of  the 
increase.  This  is  especially  important  in  comparing 
the  relative  progress  (social  well-being)  of  the  masses 
in  different  periods,  countries,  or  industries.  For  in- 
stance, a  rise  of  one  hundred  per  cent  in  the  wages  in 
England  in  1350  (three  pence  a  day)  would  have  in- 
creased the  laborer's  wealth  less  than  would  a  rise 
of  ten  per  cent  in  1887.  And  for  the  same  reason,  to- 
day an  increase  of  five  per  cent  would  give  the  Ameri- 
can laborer  as  much  additional  wealth  as  in  China  a 
rise  of  one  hundred  per  cent  would  give  to  the  Mon- 
golian. A  pound  of  flour  or  a  pound  of  beef,  whether 
it  represents  one  or  fifty  per  cent  of  the  laborer's 
wages,  only  represents  the  same  amount  of  wealth  or 
well-being.  Social  progress,  therefore,  actual  or  rela- 
tive, is  more  correctly  expressed  in  the  actual  amount 
of  increase  in  acquisition  of  wealth  than  in  any  pres- 
entation of  percentages.  This  is  an  important  fact 
that  should  never  be  lost  sight  of  in  wages  compari- 
sons, and  we  shall  rely  upon  the  reader  to  keep  it  in 
mind  throughout  this  discussion. 

To  resume,  then.  Robert  Giffen,  President  of  the 
British  Statistical  Society,  estimates  that  during  the 
fifty  years  previous  to  1883  the  operatives'  wages  in 
woollen  manufacture  rose,  on  an  average,  including 
women  and  children,  one  dollar  and  ninety-eight  cents 
^5 


314  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

per  week,  and  those  of  artisans,  two  dollars  and  thirty- 
eight  cents  *  per  week,  showing  an  average  rise  for  the 
whole  of  two  dollars  and  eighteen  cents  per  week.  By 
the  returns  of  the  Manchester  Chamber  of  Commerce  for 
1883,  we  find  that  the  wages  of  the  cotton  operatives 
(medium  quality),  all  departments  taken  together, 
from  1850  to  1883,  ^ose  two  dollars  and  forty-eight 
cents  per  week.  Those  in  fine  quality  of  goods  rose  one 
dollar  and  fifty-two  cents  per  week  ;  in  bleaching,  two 
dollars  and  twenty  cents  per  week ;  in  the  building 
trades,  two  dollars  and  two  cents  per  week,  and  in  coal- 
mining, one  dollar  and  ninety-two  cents  a  week.  Tak- 
ing all  the  above  industries  together  (and  they  embrace 
nearly  one  hundred  different  occupations  outside  of 
agriculture  and  the  London  trades),  we  find  that  from 
1850  to  1883  the  wages  of  men,  women,  and  children 
have,  on  the  average,  increased  two  dollars  and  ten 
cents  a  week.f 

The  foregoing  results  are  fully  confirmed  by  Mul- 
hall,  who  shows  %  that  during  the  forty  years  prior  to 
1875  wages  in  England,  exclusive  of  agriculture,  rose 
on  the  average  two  dollars  and  sixteen  cents  a  week. 


*  This  difference  is  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  there  is  a  much  larger 
number  of  children  in  the  former  than  in  the  latter  occupations. 

t  It  is  not  pretended  that  these  figures  are  literally  correct,  but  when 
we  remember  that  they  are  drawn  from  nearly  one  hundred  different 
occupations  and  by  expert  statisticians  of  the  highest  reputation,  who 
have  such  exceptional  opportunities  for  obtaining  the  necessary  facts 
as  are  open  to  the  President  of  the  British  Statistical  Society  and  the 
President  of  the  Manchester  Chamber  of  Commerce,  who  had  free 
access  to  the  pay-rolls  of  the  leading  concerns  throughout  the  country, 
they  may  be  safely  accepted  as  approximately  correct  and  quite  reli- 
able, and  as  indicating  the  general  industrial  and  social  conditions  of 
the  masses. 

X  "  Progress  of  the  World,"  p.  142,  London,  i88a 


INCREASE  OF  WAGES  IN  ENGLAND.  315 

And  in  a  later  work  *  he  further  shows  that  the  wages 
of  artisans  (including  London  trades)  and  factory  oper- 
atives, taken  together  from  1840  to  1884  (being  one 
decade  more  than  was  covered  by  the  estimates  of 
Messrs.  Giffen  and  Lord),  wages  rose  two  dollars  and 
forty-nine  cents  per  week. 

These  conclusions  are  thoroughly  sustained  by  the 
investigations  of  Leone  Levi,f  who  by  distinct  and,  in 
some  respects,  quite  different  means  arrives  at  substan- 
tially the  same  results.  He  shows  that  the  income  of 
the  average  family  among  the  wage  classes  (which,  he 
says,  comprise  seventy  per  cent  of  the  population), 
from  1 85 1  to  1880,  increased  from  fifty-two  pounds  to 
eighty-three  pounds  per  year,  or  two  dollars  and 
eighty-six  cents  a  week  per  family.  This  embraces 
agricultural  as  well  as  artisan  laborers  in  both  England 
and  Ireland,  who  have  not  been  under  the  influence 
of  the  short-hour  legislation  (except  as  they  have  been 
indirectly  affected  by  the  improved  social  and  indus- 
trial condition  of  artisan  and  operative  classes  in  the 
towns,  a  fact  which  should  not  be  ignored).  Accord- 
ingly, the  wages  of  agricultural  laborers  have  only 
risen  about  seventy-two,  or,  at  most,  seventy-five  cents 
a  week.  .  If  we  eliminate  the  agricultural  laborers,  who 
constitute  twenty-three  per  cent,  we  find  the  rise,  on 
the  average,  amounts  to  three  dollars  and  thirty- 
seven  cents  per  week  per  family. 

Now,  the  proportion  of  earners  to  families,  all  taken 
together,  are  1.57  to  i  ;  according  to  which  Mr.  Levi's 
figures  show  that  the  wages  of  all  classes  of  laborers 
taken  together  (exclusive  of  agriculture),  from  1851  to 


*  "  History  of  Prices,"  1885,  p.  125. 

f  "Wages  and  Earnings,"  London,  1885. 


3l6  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

1880,  have  risen  two  dollars  and  fifteen  cents  per 
week,  being  substantially  the  same  as  given  by  Messrs. 
Giffen,  Lord,  and  Mulhall.* 

From  the  above  facts,  the  general  consistency  of 
which,  without  pretending  to  literal  accuracy,  is  suffi- 
cient to  establish  their  approximate  correctness,  it  is 
quite  safe  to  conclude  that  during  the  last  thirty-five 
years  the  general  rate  of  wages  in  all  industries  (out- 
side of  agriculture)  has  actually  increased  from  two 
dollars  and  ten  cents  to  two  dollars  and  twenty-five 
cents  per  week,  or  fully  fifty  per  cent.  But  not  only 
have  nominal  wages  advanced  under  the  regime  of  less 
hours  of  labor  and  increased  social  opportunities  for 
the  masses  (which  it  was  confidently  predicted  would 
bring  industrial  disaster),  but  real  wages  have  increased 
to  a  still  greater  extent.  The  English  laborer  now 
not  only  receives  fully  fifty  per  cent  more  money 
than  he  did  before  the  passage  and  the  adoption  of 
the  ten-hour  and  half-time  system,  but,  through  the 
fall  of  prices,  each  dollar  he  receives  to-day  will  pro- 
cure him  fourteen  per  cent  more  wealth  than  did  that 
of  1850,  and,  leaving  out  house-rent,  it  will  give  him 
twenty-one  per  cent  more.  It  is  true  that  the  price  of 
meat  and  dairy  products  has  risen  during  the  period 
referred  to,  but  that  of  wheat,  clothing,  furniture, 
and  almost  everything  else  has  been  greatly  reduced. 
All  investigations,  without  regard  to  the  method  of 


♦  See  also  the  investigations  of  Mr.  Chadveick,  as  published  in  the 
journal  of  the  Statistical  Society,  Dr.  Wall  in  the  "  Encyclopaedia 
Britannica,"  Dudley  Baxter  on  the  "  National  Income,"  Professor 
Young's  "Labor  in  Europe  and  America,"  and  Brassey's  "Work 
and  Wages."  While  these  authorities  deal  with  but  a  portion  of 
that  period,  so  far  as  they  go  they  all  sustain  the  conclusion  given  in 
the  text. 


FALL  IN  PRICES  IN  ENGLAND,  3 1 7 

computation  employed,  establish  this  fact.  Mulhall, 
whose  investigations  have  probably  been  the  most  ex- 
tensive and  come  down  to  the  most  recent  date,* 
shows  that  the  general  price  level  for  Great  Britain  in 
1884  was  fourteen  per  cent  lower  than  that  of  1850— 
i.e.y  what  is  called  the  **  purchasing  power"  of  money 
had  increased  fourteen  per  cent  since  the  latter  date. 

Nor  can  the  increase  in  house-rent,  which  Mulhall 
puts  at  about  eleven  per  cent  of  the  laborer's  income, 
be  properly  put  down  as  a  rise  in  the  price — i.e.^  a  rise 
in  the  price  of  houses  of  the  same  quality,  which  is 
what  is  always  implied  by  that  expression. 

While  it  is  true  that  the  average  rent  paid  for  houses 
by  the  laboring  classes  in  England  has  doubled  since 
1850,  the  quality  of  the  average  house  occupied  by 
that  class,  if  not  twice  as  good  to-day,  is  certainly  very 
much  better  than  it  was  in  1850.  Indeed,  the  kind  of 
houses  inhabited  by  a  very  large  portion  of  the  wage 
classes  in  England  in  1850  are  now  prohibited  from 
being  used  as  human  habitations  at  any  price.  Hence, 
while  the  laborer  pays  more  rent  to-day  than  he  did 
in  1850,  he  gets  a  very  much  better  house,  which  is 
the  same  as  saying  that  he  pays  more  money,  but  gets 
more  wealth. 

But  assuming  that  the  increase  in  kouse-rent  is  all 
sheer  rise  of  price  for  the  same  quantity  and  quality 
of  wealth — which  obviously  it  is  not — the  rise  in  the 
money  price  of  labor  and  the  fall  in  that  of  commodi- 
ties shows  that  real  wages  (the  amount  of  wealth  given 
for  a  day's  work)  in  England  have  increased  since  the 
passage  of  the  ten-hour  law  fully  sixty-five  per  cent, 
or  two  dollars  and  forty  cents  a  week. 

*  "  History  of  Prices,"  1885. 


3i8  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS, 

Now,  according  to  the  principle  we  have  laid  down 
and  frequently  emphasized  throughout  this  work — 
that  the  progress  of  mental  and  moral  develop- 
ment and  of  social,  religious,  and  political  freedom 
are  the  consequence  of,  and  therefore  commensurate 
with,  the  permanent  increase  in  the  consumption  of 
wealth  per  capita  of  the  laboring  population — we 
have  a  right  to  expect,  with  such  a  permanent  rise  in 
the  general  rate  of  real  wages,  to  find  a  higher  stand- 
ard of  intelligence  and  general  culture,  and  a  greater 
degree  of  political  power  among  the  masses ;  and  a 
diminution  of  ignorance,  pauperism,  and  crime  in  the 
community.  Indeed,  if  the  evidences  of  the  latter  were 
wanting,  the  genuineness  of  the  former  might  well  be 
doubted.  Fortunately,  however,  the  indications  of 
the  intellectual,  moral,  and  political  advancement  of 
the  English  laborer  during  this  time  are  no  less  mani- 
fest than  are  those  of  his  economic  improvement. 

The  progress  of  the  general  intelligence  of  the  masses 
during  that  period  is  clearly  indicated  by  the  fact  that 
from  1840  (four  years  before  the  passage  of  the  half- 
time  school  law)  to  1870,  twenty-six  years  after,  the 
proportion  of  the  adult  population  who  could  read  and 
write  increased  thirty-five  per  cent.*  In  1840  the 
number  of  children  who  attended  school,  both  private 
and  public,  was  nine  per  cent,  in  1850,  twelve  per 
cent,  and  in  1877,  seventeen  per  cent  of  the  popula- 
tion ;  and  in  1840  the  number  of  children  that  went 
to  the  public  schools  (which  are  almost  exclusively 
attended  by  the  children  of  the  working  classes)  was 
only  I  in  57  of  the  population,  and  in  1877  they  con- 
stituted I  in  9  of  the  population.f    That  is  to  say,  the 

*  Mulhall's  "  Progress  of  the  World,"  p.  167. 
f  Ibid,,  pp.  89,  167. 


DECREASE  OF  CRIME  SINCE  1850.  319 

number  of  adults  who  could  read  and  write,  from  1840 
to  1870,  increased  thirty-five  per  cent  faster  than  the 
population,  and  from  1840  to  1877  the  number  of  chil- 
dren who  attended  school  (all  kinds)  increased  about 
seventy-five  per  cent  faster  than  the  population. 
During  the  same  period  the  number  of  children  who 
attended  the  public  schools  (workingmen's  children) 
increased  eight  hundred  per  cent  faster  than  popula- 
tion. 

The  marked  growth  of  general  intelligence  among 
the  masses  is  also  shown  by  the  great  increase  in  the 
number  of  letters  written  by  the  common  people. 
The  post-office  returns  for  the  last  decade  of  the  period 
referred  to  (1867  to  1877)  show  that  the  number  of 
letters  sent  through  the  mails  rose  from  twenty-seven  to 
thirty-five  per  head  of  the  population,*  or  about  thirty 
per  cent,  and  the  amount  of  newspaper  reading  in- 
creased to  a  still  greater  extent. 

Criminal  statistics  for  the  same  period  afford  equally 
conclusive  evidence  of  the  growth  of  the  moral  char- 
acter of  the  masses.  According  to  the  official  returns, 
the  number  of  persons  convicted  of  crime  in  Great  Brit- 
ain in  1840 — four  years  before  the  adoption  of  the  half- 
time  school  system — was  I  in  every  780!  of  the  popu- 
lation ;  in  1850  it  was  i  in  every  870  \X  in  i860,  I  in 
2071  ;  in  1885,  I  in  3272, §  being  a  diminution  of  crime 
in  proportion  to  population  of  seventy-five  per  cent 
since  1840  and  seventy-three  per  cent  since  1850. 

But  this  marked  reduction  of  the  criminal  calendar 
is  far  from  being  the  only  evidence  of  the  moral  prog- 

*  Mulhall's  "  Progress  of  the  World,"  p.  94. 

t  Ibid.,  p.  167.  X  Ibid.,  p.  89. 

§  First  Report  of  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor,  1886, 
p.  431. 


320  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

ress  among  the  masses  during  this  period.  If  we 
examine  the  matter  of  the  consumption  of  alcoholic 
drinks,  we  shall  find  that  the  facts  all  point  in  the 
same  direction. 

Indeed,  we  might  well  marvel  were  it  otherwise,  for 
the  simultaneous  decrease  of  crime  and  increase  in  the 
use  of  alcoholic  drinks,  if  not  impossible,  is  very  im- 
probable. Professor  Leone  Levi,  in  an  exhaustive 
analysis  of  "  the  consumption  of  alcoholic  and  non-alco- 
holic beverages,"  has  shown*  that  from  1867  to  1883 
the  consumption  per  head  of  the  population  of  the 
former  has  steadily  diminished,  while  that  of  the  latter 
has  greatly  increased.  From  Professor  Levi's  figures 
it  appears  that  the  amount  per  capita  of  the  population 
expended  in  spirits  in  1867  was  four  dollars  and 
ninety-four  cents,  and  in  1883  was  four  dollars  and 
eighty-eight  cents.  The  amount  per  capita  spent  in 
wine  in  1867  was  one  dollar  and  eight  cents,  and  that 
in  1883,  one  dollar  and  six  cents.  The  amount  spent 
on  beer — the  beverage  of  the  masses — in  1867  was 
ten  dollars  and  seventy-two  cents,  and  that  in  1883, 
nine  dollars  and  sixty  cents  per  capita.  It  will  thus 
be  seen  that  while  the  amount  spent  per  head  of  the 
population  for  all  kinds  of  intoxicating  drinks  has 
diminished  7.27  per  cent,  the  reduction  is  mostly  on 
the  consumption  of  beer — the  laborer  s  beverage.  While 
the  amount  spent  upon  wine  and  spirits  decreased 
fourteen  cents  per  head,  or  less  than  two  per  cent,  that 
spent  upon  beer  was  reduced  one  dollar  and  twelve 
cents  per  head,  or  11.66  per  cent,  clearly  showing 
that   the  change   is  in   the    habits    and    character   of 

*  "  Wages  and  Earnings  of  the  Working  Classes,"  London,  1885, 
pp.  59-69. 


DECREASE  IN  THE  USE  OF  BEER. 


321 


the  laboring  classes,   and  not  in  those  of  the  upper 
classes. 

It  may  be  further  added  that  the  decrease  in  the 
amount  spent  by  the  masses  upon  alcoholic  drinks  is 
not  due  in  any  degree  to  a  change  of  prices,  by  which 
the  same  amount  of  liquor  can  be  obtained  for  less 
money,  but  it  is  due  to  a  bona  fide  diminution  of  the 
actual  amount  consumed  per  head  of  the  population. 
Whatever  influence  the  change  of  prices  has  had  in 
that  direction,  which  is  very  slight,  has  related  to  the 
wines  and  spirits  of  the  upper  classes,  and  not  to  the 
laborer's  beer,  as  the  following  facts  clearly  show  : 


Gallons 
per  Head. 

1867. 

Gallons 
per  Head. 

1883. 

Actual  Increase  or 
Decrease  per  Head. 

Beverages. 

Increase, 
Gallons. 

Decrease, 
Gallons. 

British  Spirits 

Foreign     "      

0.71 
0.28 

0.83 
0.23 

0.12 
0.07 

0.05 

Total 

0.99 

1.06 

Wine 

0.45 

0.40 

0.05 

Beer 

29.66 

27.10 

2.56 

It  will  be  observed  from  the  above  that,  taking  the 
wine  and  spirits  separately,  the  consumption  of  the 
latter  has  increased  seven  one  hundredths  of  a  gallon, 
and  that  of  the  former  has  fallen  five  one  hundredths 
of  a  gallon  per  head,  showing  a  net  increase  in  the 
aggregate  consumption  of  wine  and  spirits  of  two  one 
hundredths  of  a  gallon  per  head  per  annum,  while  that 
of  beer— the  laborer's  drink — has  diminished  during  the 
same  period  two  and  fifty-six  one  hundredth  gallons 
for  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the  community. 


322  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

Nor  is  this  marked  reduction  in  the  use  of  intoxi- 
cating drink  among  the  masses  due  in  any  sense  to 
their  inability  to  obtain  it,  because,  as  we  have  seen, 
real  wages  have  steadily  increased  simultaneously  with 
the  gradual  diminution  in  the  consumption  of  alcoholic 
beverages.  Were  further  evidence  of  this  needed, 
it  is  abundantly  supplied  by  the  fact  that  during  the 
same  period  that  the  use  of  alcoholic  drinks  has  de- 
clined, that  of  non-alcoholic  beverages  has  greatly  in- 
creased. From  1867  to  1883  the  consumption  of  tea 
per  head  increased  30.43  per  cent,  and  that  of  cocoa, 
which  is,  hygienically,  one  of  the  most  wholesome  of 
all  non-intoxicating  beverages,  increased  157.14  per 
cent,  while  the  use  of  coffee,  which  is  admitted  to  be 
the  least  hygienic  of  the  non-intoxicants,  has  declined 
14.42  per  cent.  The  use  of  milk  and  sugar  per  head 
has  also  greatly  increased.  The  most  recent  revenue 
returns  also  fully  sustain  these  facts.  The  British 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  in  his  speech  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  introducing  the  national  budget 
last  year  (1886),  called  special  attention  to  the  fact 
that  while  the  revenue  from  alcoholic  beverages  had 
fallen  off,  that  from  the  wholesome  necessaries  of  life 
had  more  than  correspondingly  increased. 

From  the  above,  three  important  facts  are  conclu- 
sively established  :  (i)  That  the  diminished  expendi- 
ture per  head  for  intoxicating  beverages  correctly 
indicates  a  bona  fide  decrease  in  the  use  of  those  bever- 
ages, because  the  quantity  per  head  actually  consumed 
has  diminished  in  about  the  same  ratio  as  the  amount 
expended  upon  it.  (2)  That  this  decrease  is  wholly 
confined  to  the  beverages  mostly  used  by  the  masses, 
and  is  therefore  clearly  due  to  the  diminution  in 
their  habitual  use  of  them.    (3)  That  the  use  of  in- 


DECREASE  OF  PA  UPERISM.  323 

toxicating  drink  and  the  perpetration  of  crime  among 
the  laboring  classes  have  both  actually  and  relatively- 
decreased  in  proportion  as  their  wages  and  social 
opportunities  have  increased.* 

As  the  natural  result  of  higher  wages,  lower  prices, 
greater  intelligence,  and  purer  morals,  we  naturally 
expect  and  do  find  a  decrease  of  pauperism.  Ac- 
cording to  the  official  returns  in  i850,f  the  number 
of  paupers  in  Great  Britain  was  as  i  to  every  18 
of  the  population.  In  i86o:j:  it  was  as  i  to  34  of  the 
population.  And  in  1885  it  was  only  as  i  to  every  46 
of  the  population,  showing  a  relative  decrease  of  pau- 
perism to  population  of  sixty-one  per  cent. 

These  facts  furnish  a  complete  answer  to,  and  should 
forever  silence,  that  shallow  and  flippant  libel  upon  the 
laboring  classes  which,  for  more  than  half  a  century, 
has  been  constantly  repeated,  but  never  sustained — 
that  "  the  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor  tends  to 
lower  wages,  increase  idleness,  dissipation,  drunken- 
ness, and  vice.'* 

VVe  do  not  refer  to  these  facts  to  give  the  impres- 


*  In  presenting  some  important  statistics  showing  the  "  moral 
effects  of  high  and  lew  wages,"  Professor  Levi  says  :  "  It  has  been 
alleged  that  high  wages  only  lead  to  extravagance  and  folly.  I  see 
no  reason  for  such  a  proposition.  As  a  rule,  and  in  the  long  run, 
scarcity,  low  wages,  and  scantiness  of  food  go  hand  in  hand  with  high 
mortality,  drunkenness,  and  crime  ;  while  abundance,  high  wages, 
and  full  consumption  go  hand  in  hand  with  low  mortality,  temper- 
ance, and  good  behavior." — "  Wages  and  Earnings  of  the  Working 
Classes,**  1885,  p.  35.  Mulhall  also  gives  some  striking  facts  upon 
this  point.     See  "  Progress  of  the  World,"  p.  103. 

f  Mulhall's  "  Progress  of  the  World."  p.  89. 

X  Statement  prepared  by  Sir  John  Lubbock  from  the  official  statis- 
tical report  of  Great  Britain,  quoted  in  the  first  report  of  the  United 
States  Commissioner  of  Labor,  1886. 


324  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

sion  that  the   English  laborer  has  reached  the  social 
millennium — not  by  any  means. 

The  social  state  of  a  people  where  twenty  out  of 
every  one  hundred  adults  are  still  unable  to  read  and 
write — where,  on  the  average,  every  man,  woman,  and 
child  annually  consumes  1.46  gallons  of  wine  and  spirits 
and  27. 10  gallons  of  beer — where  i  in  every  46  of  the 
population  is  a  pauper,  and  i  in  every  3272  is  a  criminal 
— is  not  only  very  far  from  ideal  perfection,  but  it  can 
hardly  be  said  to  have  reached  more  than  the  threshold 
of  civilization.  Our  reason  for  calling  attention  to  these 
facts  is  to  show  the  important  economic  and  social  les- 
son they  contain — that  the  elimination  of  poverty, 
ignorance,  pauperism,  intemperance,  crime,  and  their 
accompanying  evils  move  parallel  with,  and  proportion- 
ate to,  the  social  opportunities  of  the  laboring  classes. 

The  advocates  of  laissez  faire  will  doubtless  be 
ready  to  ascribe  England's  remarkable  progress  during 
the  above  period  to  her  free-trade  poHcy  ;  but  those 
who  take  that  position  will  be  called  upon  to  explain 
how  it  is  that,  while  England's  free-trade  policy  ap- 
plies to  her  whole  people,  it  is  only  in  those  portions 
of  the  country  where  short-hour  legislation  and  half- 
time  schools  obtain  that  this  progress  is  to  be  found. 
They  must  explain  how  it  is  that  the  laboring  classes 
in  those  sections  of  the  country  not  affected  by  this 
legislation  have  made  little  more  progress  during  that 
period  than  the  same  class  of  laborers  in  other  Euro- 
pean countries — they  will  have  to  explain  how  it  is 
that  since  1850  the  wages  of  the  mechanics  and  arti- 
sans have  increased  two  dollars  and  forty-three  cents 
a  week,  while  those  of  the  agricultural  laborers  have 
only  risen  about  seventy-two  cents  a  week.  They 
will  also  have  to  explain  how  it  is  that  the  homes  of 


ITS  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA.  325 

the  English  agricultural  laborers  to-day  are  very  little 
better  than  those  of  the  continental  peasantry,  while 
those  of  the  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire  operatives  are 
far  superior  to  those  of  the  laboring  classes  of  any 
other  country,  outside  of  America. 

The  good  results  of  this  policy  are  not  only  to  be 
seen  in  the  improved  material  condition  of  the  masses, 
but  in  their  intellectual  and  moral  condition  as  well. 
Public  opinion  and  legislation  on  the  side  of  freedom 
and  human  progress  have  been  practically  moulded 
and  directed  by  its  effects.  Every  important  reform 
that  has  occupied  the  public  mind  in  England  during 
the  last  quarter  of  a  century — industrial,  social,  politi- 
cal, or  religious — has  originated  in  and  received  its 
main  support  from  the  people  in  those  parts  of  the 
country  where  the  influence  of  short-hour  legislation 
and  half-time  schools  has  prevailed.  It  is  notorious 
that  the  backbone  of  opposition  to  all  popular  reforms 
has  been  found  in  the  representatives  from  the  agri- 
cultural districts  and  the  landed  aristocracy.  Even 
the  enfranchisement  of  the  agricultural  laborers  them- 
selves was  not  the  result,  in  any  appreciable  degree,  of 
their  efforts,  but  was  mainly  due  to  those  of  their 
brethren  in  the  towns,  who  had  long  since  procured 
that  privilege  for  themselves. 

Nor  has  the  influence  of  this  legislation  upon  prog- 
ress been  limited  to  England.  We  in  America  owe 
more  to  the  moral  results  of  these  measures  than  we 
have  yet  learned  to  recognize.  During  the  dark  days 
of  the  Rebellion,  when  the  success  of  the  Union  arms 
was  very  doubtful,  and  the  English  Government  stood 
ready,  as  we  then  feared  and  still  believe,  to  give  aid 
and  comfort  to  the  enemy,  the  one  bright  spot  above 
the   horizon  was  the  public  opinion  created  by  the 


326  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

workingmen  in  the  manufacturing  districts  in  the 
north  of  England.  Although  the  cotton  industry  was 
prostrated  there  for  years,  and  thousands  of  operatives 
were  out  of  employment,  many  of  whom  were  on  the 
verge  of  starvation,  as  the  result  of  our  war,  they  not 
only  bore  it  without  a  murmur,  but  they  turned  England 
into  a  hot-bed  of  agitation  by  monster  open-air  meet- 
ings, from  one  hundred  thousand  to  five  hundred  thou- 
sand strong,  unanimously  declaring  for  the  freedom  of 
the  slave  and  the  success  of  the  Union,  and  instructing 
their  representatives  in  Parliament  to  oppose  every 
effort  of  the  Government  to  recognize  or  assist  the 
Rebellion.  In  the  face  of  this  popular  force,  the  min- 
istry did  not  dare  do  more  than  wink  at  the  building 
of  the  Alabama. 

I  repeat,  it  was  not  from  the  agricultural  districts 
that  this  declaration  against  slavery  came.  Not  a 
single  meeting  was  ever  held  nor  a  voice  heard,  in  or 
out  of  Parliament,  from  those  parts  of  the  country  on 
this  question.  No  !  It  was  from  Birmingham,  Man- 
chester, Leeds,  Bradford,  Halifax,  Oldham,  Bolton, 
Stockport,  Rochdale,  and  the  manufacturing  districts 
of  the  great  north,  that,  as  the  first  fruits  of  the  seed 
of  progress  that  had  been  planted  by  the  ten -hour  law 
and  half-time  schools,  there  arose  a  popular  power, 
which,  at  an  opportune  moment,  stayed  the  hand  of 
the  British  government,  and  helped  us  to  save  the 
republic. 

The  effect  of  similar  legislation  in  Massachusetts  is 
equally  encouraging.  The  results  there  are  not  so 
pronounced  as  in  England,  because  the  ten-hour  law 
has  only  been  in  operation  a  few  years,  and  it  affects 
a  much  smaller  proportion  of  the  population.  But, 
notwithstanding  this  fact,  its  elevating  influence  upon 


TRIED  IN  MASSACHUSETTS. 


327 


the  masses  is  so  apparent  that  it  has  become  very  pop- 
ular among  all  classes  in  the  community  ;  so  much  so, 
that  many  of  those  who  strongly  opposed  its  adoption 
would  now,  with  equal  force,  object  to  its  repeal.  In 
1880,  six  years  after  the  passage  of  the  ten-hour  law 
in  that  State,  as  the  result  of  an  argument  made  be- 
fore the  Legislative  Labor  Committee  by  a  prominent 
free-trade  advocate,  Edward  Atkinson,  who  has  always 
been  an  active  opponent  of  the  law,  on  the  ground 
"  that  its  operation  was  injurious  to  the  workingmen, 
as  they  had  to  work  for  one  eleventh  less  than  similar 
laborers  in  other  States,"  the  legislature  ordered  the 
Labor  Bureau  to  investigate  the  hours  of  labor  and 
the  wages  paid  in  Massachusetts  and  in  the  other  New 
England  States,  and  also  in  New  York.  This  was 
done,  and  the  result,  which  appeared  in  the  Bureau 
Report  for  1881,  was  as  follows  : 


State. 


Average  Wages 
per  Week. 


Maine 

New  Hampshire 

Connecticut 

Rhode  Island 

New  York 

Massachusetts 


It  will  be  seen  from  this  investigation,  which  was 
instituted  by  the  enemies  of  the  law,  that  in  the  States 
of  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  Connecti- 
cut, and  New  York  the  average  working  time  is  sixty- 
five  and  one  half  hours  per  week,  and  the  average  wages 
of  labor  seven  dollars  and  sixty-seven  cents  per  week  ; 
while  in  Massachusetts,  with  only  sixty  hours  a  week, 


328  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

the  average  wages  are  eight  dollars  and  thirty-two 
cents  per  week,  or  sixty-three  cents  a  week  more  for 
five  and  a  half  hours  a  week  less  labor.  That  is  to 
say,  the  laborer  in  Massachusetts  works  twenty-two 
hours,  or  over  two  full  days,  less,  and  receives  two  dol- 
lars and  fifty-two  cents  per  month  more  wages  than 
do  similar  laborers  in  the  other  .States  referred  to. 

There  never  was  any  legislation  adopted  in  any 
country  in  the  world  that  has  yielded  such  good  eco- 
nomic fruit  !  It  operates  alike  under  a  monarchy  in 
Europe  and  a  republic  in  America.  In  fact,  it  is  the 
one  species  of  industrial  legislation  that  has  never 
failed,  and  its  results  have  only  been  limited  by  the 
extent  of  its  application. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    RELATIVE    INDUSTRIAL    PROGRESS    IN    ENGLAND 
AND   OTHER  COUNTRIES   SINCE    1850. 

Section  I. — England  and  Continental  Countries  Com- 
pared. 

In  the  last  chapter  two  important  facts  were  estab- 
lished :  (i)  That  the  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor 
and  half-time  schools  for  working  children  is  a  practi- 
cal and  feasible  proposition  ;  and  (2)  That  it  has  not 
only  not  been  inimical  to  the  economic  interests  of 
either  the  laborer  or  the  capitalist,  but  that  under  the 
influence  of  the  leisure  and  social  opportunities  created 
by  it,  the  material,  social,  and  political  progress  of 
the  masses  has  been  phenomenal — such,  indeed,  as 
the  world  has  never  before  seen.  While  it  is  not  pre- 
tended that  all  the  social  advancement  that  has  taken 
place  in  Great  Britain  since  1850  is  due  to  her  short- 
time  industrial  policy,  that  a  very  considerable  portion 
of  it  is  the  result  of  this  legislation  can  be  easily  shown. 
To  do  this,  it  is  only  necessary  to  compare  the  progress 
of  the  social  well-being  of  the  masses  in  England  and 
other  countries  during  the  period  under  consideration. 
The  most  infallible  test  of  the  social  well-being  of  the 
masses  in  any  community  is  the  general  rate  of  real 
wages. 

In  instituting  a  comparison  between  the  rate  of 
wages  paid  in  England  and  in  other  countries,  it 
should  be  remembered  that  the  question  is  not  whether 


330  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

or  no  wages  are  higher  in  England  than  elsewhere,  but 
whether  the  actual  increase  in  the  amount  of  wealth 
obtainable  for  a  day's  wages  has  been  greater  in  Eng- 
land than  in  this  country  or  on  the  continent  since 
1850. 

Nor  can  the  comparative  industrial  improvement  be 
ascertained  by  the  percentage  of  increase  in  the  wages 
in  the  different  countries,  because,  for  reasons  already 
explained,*  the  highest  percentage  of  increase  may 
sometimes  indicate  the  smallest  actual  rise  in  real 
wages,  and  vice  versd.  We  shall,  therefore,  always 
take  the  actual  amount  and  not  the  percentage  of  the 
increase  in  the  quantity  of  wealth  received  as  the 
measure  of  the  material  progress. 

From  the  most  reliable  sources,  we  have  already  seen 
that  the  general  rate  of  nominal  wages  in  England, 
exclusive  of  agriculture,  from  1850  to  1883,  at  the 
lowest  estimate,  has  actually  increased  two  dollars  and 
ten  cents  per  week.  Now,  according  to  Mulhall,f 
the  average  wages  of  artisans  in  France,  from  1850 
to  1880,  only  rose  one  dollar  and  forty-one  cents  per 
week,  and  the  official  returns  for  eighteen  leading 
industries  in  the  principal  cities  in  France,  from 
1853  to  1882,:!:  show  an  average  increase  of  one 
dollar   and  sixty-three  cents  per  week.§     The  mean 

*  Chapter  VII.,  Part  III.       f  "  History  of  Prices,"  1885,  p.  124. 

X  See  tables  in  First  Report  of  United  States  Commissioner  of 
Labor,  1886,  p.  237. 

§  It  will  be  observed  that  these  returns  do  not  cover  exactly  the 
same  dates  as  Mulhall's,  going  back  three  years  less  and  coming  down 
two  years  later.  This  will  doubtless  explain  at  least  some  of  the  dif- 
ference, as  the  same  tables  show  that  from  1853  to  188 1  the  rise  was 
only  $1.60.  Had  they  gone  back  to  1850  and  only  come  to  1880  the 
result  would  probably  have  been  very  similar  to  Mulhall's.  This  is 
important  only  as  showing  the  similarity  of  two  different  invesliga- 


WAGES  IN  FRANCE  AND  GERMANY.  331 

average  of  these  would  be  one  dollar  and  fifty-two 
cents  per  week ;  but  to  give  France  the  benefit  of  the 
most  favorable  returns,  we  will  call  it  one  dollar  and 
sixty-three  cents.  Taking  the  official  returns  for  nine- 
teen industries,  including  spinners,  weavers,  winders, 
carders,  firemen,  laborers,  machinists,  carpenters, 
joiners,  masons,  etc.,  in  the  Rhine  District  of  Ger- 
many, which  are  complete  for  every  year  from  1855  to 
1885,*  we  find  the  average  rate  of  wages  has  increased 
one  dollar  and  fifty-four  cents  per  week.  Among  the 
many  other  investigations  for  different  portions  of  this 
period,  all  of  which  tend  to  show  the  general  accuracy 
of  the  above,  may  be  cited  the  elaborate  tables  given 
by  Edward  Young.  In  addition  to  a  vast  amount  of 
statistical  data  relating  to  the  wages  and  industrial 
conditions  in  Germany,  Professor  Young  gives  a  very 
full  table  t  of  the  average  wages  paid  in  eighty-four 
different  industries  from  i860  to  1868,  inclusive.  Dur- 
ing the  nine  years  covered  by  these  tables,  it  appears 
that  wages  rose  a  fraction  less  than  forty-six  cents  a 
week.  If  they  had  risen  at  that  rate  throughout  the 
whole  thirty  years  (185 5-1 885),  the  increase  would 
have  been  exactly  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents  a  week. 
This  is  only  four  cents  a  week  less  than  is  shown  by 
the  returns  quoted  above,  which  may  therefore  be  re- 
garded as  substantially  correct.  As  to  the  other  con- 
tinental countries,  I  have  been  unable  to  obtain  reli- 
able data  as  to  actual  wages  for  a  sufficient  portion  of 
the  period  under  consideration   to  warrant   fair  com- 

tions  of  the  same  facts,  which  is  the  best  internal  evidence  of  their 
general  correctness. 

*  See  tables  in  Report  of  United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor, 
i836,  pp.  238,  239. 

\  "  Labor  in  Europe  and  America,"  1875,  pp.  525,  526. 


332 


WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 


parisons,  but  there  is  ample  data  of  other  kinds  just  as 
conclusive  (as  we  shall  soon  see),  showing  that  the 
actual  increase  of  wages  in  Italy,  Spain,  Austria,  Rus- 
sia, etc.,  since  1850  has  been  much  less  than  in  France 
and  Germany.  Therefore,  taking  the  most  liberal  es- 
timates for  France  and  Germany,  and  the  most  mod- 
erate ones  for  England,  the  facts  in  relation  to  the 
rise  in  weekly  wages  may  be  stated  as  follows  : 


Countries. 


Germany 
France. . 
England. 


Amount  of  In- 
crease per 
Week. 


I1.54 
1.63 
2.10 


Hours  of 

Labor  per 
Week. 


75* 

72 

6of 


From  the  above  it  will  be  seen  that  the  increase  in 
the  average  wages  in  England  since  1850  has  been 
forty-seven  cents  a  week  more,  with  two  hours  a  day 
less  (and  for  children    under  fourteen   seven  hours  a 


*  This  is,  if  anything,  too  low.  So  far  as  I  know,  there  is  no  law 
limiting  the  hours  of  labor  for  adults  in  Germany,  but  the  prevailing 
practice  appears  to  be  thirteen  or  more  hours  a  day.  "  Throughout 
nearly  the  whole  of  Prussia,"  says  Professor  Young,  "  artisans  and 
apprentices  work  regularly  in  summer  from  5  a.m.  to  12,  and  from  i 
P.M.  to  7,  and  even  later  ;  and  in  winter  from  daybreak,  sometimes 
6  A.M.  to  8  or  9  in  the  evening.  The  hand-weaver  frequently  sits  in 
his  loom,  employed  at  monotonous  labor,  for  sixteen  hours  in  the  day. 
The  agricultural  laborers  have  to  work  hard  for  twelve  hours  a  day 
out  of  harvest-time,  and  during  harvest-time  for  fourteen  hours.  The 
same  rule  applies  to  farm  servants.  The  extreme  length  of  the  hours 
of  daily  labor  is  indeed  one  of  the  dark  phases  of  the  condition  of  the 
working  classes  in  Prussia,  and  generally  throughout  Germany." — 
*'  Labor  in  Europe  and  America"  1875,  p.  573. 

f  Reduced  to  fifty-six  hours  per  week  in  1874,  which  has  been  the 
general  law  and  practice  ever  since. 


PRICES  IN  THE   VARIOUS  COUNTRIES.  IZ2> 

day  less)  labor  than  those  in  France,  and  fifty-six  cents 
a  week  more,  with  nearly  three  hours  a  day  less  than 
those  in  Germany. 

If  we  compare  the  variation  of  prices  in  those  coun- 
tries, which  it  is  necessary  to  do  in  order  to  know  how 
much  wealth  or  real  social  well-being  this  rise  of  wages 
represents,  we  shall  see  the  difference  is  still  greater 
in  favor  of  England.  I  have  been  unable  to  obtain 
anything  like  full  returns  of  prices  for  the  whole  of  the 
period  since  1850,  but,  such  as  there  are,  they  all 
clearly  point  in  that  direction.  The  price  of  wheat,  for 
example,  in  England,  has  fallen  from  one  dollar  and 
sixty  cents  a  bushel  in  1850  to  one  dollar  and  sixteen 
cents  a  bushel  in  1881  ;  while  in  France  during  the 
same  period  it  actually  rose  from  one  dollar  and  fifty- 
six  cents  to  one  dollar  and  sixty  cents  a  bushel.  And 
taking  a  given  quantity  of  wheat,  potatoes,  meat,  eggs, 
butter,  and  sugar,  which  in  Frange  in  1850  cost 
ninety-four  dollars  and  twenty-four  cents,  in  1880  cost 
one  hundred  and  six  dollars  and  eight  cents,  showing 
an  actual  increase  of  eleven  dollars  and  eighty- four 
cents,  or  over  twelve  and  one-half  per  cent  ;  while  the 
same  quantity  of  the  same  articles  in  England  in 
1850  cost  eighty-six  dollars  and  eight  cents,  and  in 
1 88 1  only  sixty-six  dollars  and  forty  cents,  showing  an 
actual  fall  of  nineteen  dollars  and  sixty-eight  cents, 
or  about  twenty-three  per  cent.* 

The  same  is  true  to  even  a  greater  extent  of  manu- 
factured articles.  This  is  shown  by  the  fact  that,  in 
spite  of  high  tariffs,  England  can  compete  with,  and,  in 


*  These  prices  are  taken  from  Tooke  and  Mulhall's  "  Histories  of 
Prices,"  the  former  of  which  comes  down  to  1855,  and  the  latter  to 

1885. 


334  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

many  branches  of  industry  can  undersell,  continental 
countries  in  their  own  markets,  although  she  pays  from 
thirty  to  eighty  per  cent  higher  wages  than  they  do. 
While  the  statistics  of  prices  on  the  continent  are  not 
complete  for  the  whole  of  the  period  from  1850,  they 
are  quite  ample  for  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  suffi- 
ciently so  to  enable  approximately  correct  general  price 
levels  to  be  obtained  in  the  leading  countries.  Accord- 
ing to  Mulhall's  tables,  the  price  level  of  1881-83,  as 
compared  with  that  of  1863-70,  fell  in  the  different 
countries  as  follows  :  England,  twenty-eight  per  cent  ; 
France,  twenty-one  per  cent  ;  Italy,  twenty-one  per 
cent  ;  and  Belgium,  six  per  cent.  Germany  is  not 
given,  but  assuming  the  fall  of  prices  to  have  been  as 
great  there  as  in  France,  it  will  be  seen  that  since  1870 
the  price  level  has  fallen — i.e.j  the  purchasing  capacity 
of  a  dollar  has  increased  nine  cents  more  in  England 
than  in  France  qr  Germany,  and  nearly  ten  cents  more 
than  the  average  of  the  four  most  advanced  continental 
countries.  As  a  general  fall  of  prices  is  an  actual 
addition  to  real  wages,  if  we  add  this  to  the  amount 
of  the  rise  in  nominal  wages  already  referred  to,  we 
shall  have  an  approximately  correct  statement  of  the 
actual  and  relative  increase  in  the  material  well-being 
of  the  laboring  classes  in  those  countries. 

Now,  assuming  that  the  general  movement  of  prices 
from  1850  to  1870  was  as  great  in  France  and  Germany 
as  it  was  in  England — which  we  have  every  reason  for 
believing  it  was  not — the  actual  increase  in  real  wages 
since  the  adoption  of  the  ten-hour  and  half-time  work- 
ing system  in  England  stands  as  follows  : 

Germany $1.62  per  week. 

France 1.72         " 

England 2.40         " 


AGRICULTURAL  WAGES. 


335 


Thus  showing  that  the  real  wages  of  every  laboring 
man,  woman,  and  child  have  increased  since  1850 
sixty-eight  cents  a  week  more  for  two  hours  a  day  less 
labor  in  England  than  they  have  in  France,  and 
seventy-eight  cents  a  week  more  for  nearly  three  hours 
less  labor  a  day  than  they  have  in  Germany. 

That  this  greater  rise  in  real  wages  in  England  is 
due  to  the  increased  social  opportunities  afforded  by 
short-hour  legislation,  is  clearly  shown  by  the  fact  that 
the  wages  of  the  agricultural  laborers — to  whom  it  did 
not  apply,  except  indirectly  through  their  contact 
with  the  towns — have  only  risen  in  about  the  same 
ratio  as  those  of  the  same  class  on  the  continent,  as 
will  be  seen  by  the  following  table  of  daily  wages  of 
agricultural  laborers  in  the  various  European  countries 
in  1835  and  1884.* 


Countries. 


England 

France 

Germany 

Austria 

Holland  and  Belgium 

Russia 

Italy 

Scandinavia .-. 


1835- 

1884. 

$0.32 

$0.56 

.30 

.50 

.16 

.36 

.20 

.40 

.18 

.40 

.12 

.24 

.10 

.24 

.16 

.28 

Increase. 


$0.24 
.20 
.20 
.20 
.22 
.12 
.14 
.12 


This  is  inconsistent  with  the  theory  that  high  wages 
increase  prices,  but  it  is  in  full  accord  with  the  prin- 
ciple we  have  maintained  throughout  this  work,  that 
high  wages  in  the  long  run  mean  cheap  things,  and 
low  wages  mean  dear  things.  This  is  so,  for  the  sim- 
ple reason  that  high  wages  mean  large  consumption. 


*  Mulhall's  "  History  of  Prices,"  p.  125. 


336 


WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 


which  in  turn  means  the  more  extensive  use  of  cap- 
ital and  improved  methods  of  production,  and,  as  a 
consequence,  always  reduces  prices.  Accordingly,  we 
find  the  use  of  natural  forces  is  the  greatest,  and  hence 
motive  power  is  the  cheapest,  in  those  countries  where 
wages  are  the  highest,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  follow- 
ing table  :* 


Countries. 


Russia 

Austria. ., 

Italy 

Portugal 

Scandinavia 

Spain 

Holland 

France 

Germany 

Switzerland 

Belgium 

Great  Britain 

Average  for  Europe 

Average  for  the  Continent 


Percentage 

of  Steam 

Power  Used. 


29 
34 
34 
34 
41 
45 
58 
60 

71 
73 

78 


45 


36 


Cost  per  TOGO 

Foot  Tons  of 

Energy  in 

Cenis. 


25.20 
32.20 
35.60 
42.40 
20.40 
27.60 
29.40 
28.40 
23.20 
22.40 
20.20 
16.80 


24.20 


26.60 


Weekly 
Wages  Paid 

to  the 
Laborers. 


$3.60 

3.84 
360 
3.60 
3.66 

3.84 
4.80 

504 
3.84 
4.80 
4.80 
7.44 


$4.40 


$4.12 


It  will  be  seen  from  the  above,  that  wages  are  eighty- 
four  per  cent  higher,  the  use  of  steam  is  one  hun- 
dred and  seventeen  per  cent  greater,  and  the  cost  of 
productive  power  thirty-seven  per  cent  less  in  England 
than  is  the  average  in  continental  countries. 


*  These  tables  are  condensed  from  those  given  by  Mulhall  in  his 
History  of  Prices,"  1885. 


PRODUCTIVE  POWER  OF  VARIOUS  NATIONS.    337 

To  state  the  same  fact  another  way  :  Through  the 
larger  consumption  and  consequent  improved  methods 
of  production,  the  productive  capacity  of  ten  laborers 
in  England  (assuming  their  skill  and  dexterity  to  be 
the  same)  is  equal  to  twenty  in  France,  twenty-six  in 
Germany,  twenty-seven  in  Austria,  forty-three  in 
Spain,  sixty-one  in  Italy,  and  seventy  in  Portugal. 

This  explains  why,  with  a  greater  rise  of  wages,  there 
has  been  simultaneously  a  greater  fall  of  prices  in 
England  than  on  the  continent  since  1850.  Hence, 
the  great  English  statistician  proudly  and  truly  ex- 
claims :*  "  This  advantage  enables  us  (England),  as 
far  as  labor  is  concerned,  to  undersell  continental  na- 
tions by  twelve  per  cent,  although  our  workmen's 
wages  are  almost  double." 

The  degree  of  progress  in  the  material  well-being  in 
any  country  is  also  clearly  indicated  by  the  actual  in- 
come per  capita  of  the  population.  Measured  by  this 
standard,  the  actual  progress  in  the  different  coun- 
tries in  Europe,  from  187a  to  1880,  was  as  shown  in 
table  on  next  page. 

From  this  table  it  will  be  learned  that  four  im- 
portant facts  are  established  :  (i)  That  since  1870 
the  gross  income  per  capita  of  the  population  has  in- 
creased in  every  country  in  Europe  except  Turkey. 
(2)  That  in  Russia,  Italy,  Portugal,  and  Germany  tax- 
ation per  capita  has  increased  in  a  greater  ratio  than 
the  earnings.  Hence,  the  net  income  (free  of  taxes) 
in  those  countries  was  actually  one  dollar  and  ten 
cents  per  capita  less  in  1880  than  in  1870.  (3)  That 
in  England  the  increase  in  the  gross  income  per  capita 

*  Mulhall's  "  History  of  Prices,"  p.  57. 
16 


338 


WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 


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SUPERIORITY  OF  ENGLAND.  339 

during  that  period  was  ten  times  as  great  as  that  of 
taxation,  and  four  times  as  much  as  the  continental 
average.  (4)  That  in  England  the  actual  increase  in 
the  income  per  capita,  free  of  taxes,  was  five  dollars 
and  seventy-eight  cents  per  annum  more,  or  nearly- 
double,  that  of  any  other  European  country,  more 
than  four  times  that  of  the  European  average,  and  over 
six  times  as  large  as  that  in  continental  countries. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  in  whatever  way  we  con- 
sider the  question,  we  find  that  the  actual  increase  in 
the  consumable  wealth  per  capita  (real  well-being)  has 
not  only  been  nearly  twice  as  great  in  England  as  that 
of  any  other  country,  but,  taking  them  altogether, 
the  increase  per  head  subject  to  taxation  has  been  four 
times  as  great,  and  that,  after  deducting  taxes,  has 
been  six  times  as  great  as  that  of  countries  which  have 
not  adopted  a  similar  industrial  policy.  Again,  if  we 
compare  the  present  actual  condition  of  the  masses  in 
England  with  that  of  those  in  continental  countries, 
the  difference  is  equally  pronounced. 

One  of  the  best  indications  of  the  social  condition 
of  any  people  is  the  extent  to  which  their  energies  are 
absorbed  in  providing  food,  clothes,  and  shelter. 
Whatever  the  nominal  rate  of  wages  may  be,  the  social 
condition  is  the  highest  where  these  physical  necessi- 
ties can  be  obtained  with  the  fewest  days'  labor,  and 
where  the  largest  proportion  of  the  laborer's  time  and 
energies  is  devoted  to  the  gratification  of  the  higher 
social  wants,  and  vice  versa. 

The  average  number  of  days'  labor  per  year  required 
to  furnish  the  laborer  with  food,  clothing,  house-rent, 
and  taxes,  and  those  remaining  to  be  applied  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  higher  social  wants  in  the  various 
European  countries,  are  as  follows  : 


340 


WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 


Countries. 


Great  Britain . 

France 

Germany  .... 

Italy 

Belgium 

Russia 

Austria. ...... 

Spain 

Scandinavia. . 


European  average  . . 
Continental  average. 


Food. 


114 
120 

155 
162 

133 
180 

159 
164 

147 


148 
152 


Clothes. 


34 
36 
40 

44 
40 

49 
43 
41 
40 


40 


41 


House 
Rent. 


29 
30 
27 
24 
20 
20 
22 
24 
23 


24 
23 


Taxes, 


32 
45 
38 
60 
33 
37 
34 
56 
30 


40 


41 


Higher 
Social 
Wanu. 


91 
69 
40 
10 
74 
14 
42 
15 
60 


46 


40 


From  these  facts  it  will  be  seen  that  the  English 
laborer,  poor  as  he  is,  after  supplying  himself  and 
family  with  food,  clothes,  and  shelter  (all  of  which  are 
better  than  those  of  his  continental  brother),  and  pay- 
ing his  quota  of  taxation,  has  left  to  be  devoted  to 
his  higher  social  wants  the  income  from  ninety-one 
days'  labor  a  year  ;  or  that  of  twenty-two  days  more 
than  the  Frenchman,  forty-nine  more  than  the  Aus- 
trian, fifty-one  more  than  the  German,  seventy-six 
more  than  the  Spaniard,  seventy-seven  more  than  the 
Russian,  and  eighty-one  more  than  the  Italian. 

In  other  words,  the  average  Englishman  is  seven- 
teen days'  labor  a  year  better  off  than  the  best,  eighty- 
one  days  better  than  the  worst,  and  fifty-one  days 
better  than  the  average  laborer  on  the  continent.  Or, 
stated  in  money,  the  Englishman,  after  paying  for  his 
food,  clothes,  house-rent,  and  taxes,  has  one  hundred 
and  twelve  dollars  and  eighty-four  cents  a  year  to  de- 
vote to  his  higher  wants,  as  against  fifty-seven  dollars 
and  ninety-six  cents  for  the  Frenchman,  twenty-five 
dollars  and  sixty  cents  for  the  German,  eight  dollars 


EDUCATION  OF   CHILDREN. 


341 


and  forty  cents  for  the  Russian,  and  only  six  dollars  a 
year  for  the  Italian.  Nor  has  the  intellectual  prog- 
ress of  the  masses  in  England  during  the  period  under 
consideration,  as  compared  with  that  of  those  on  the 
continent,  been  any  less  pronounced  than  that  of  their 
material  prosperity.  Take  the  matter  of  education, 
for  instance.  The  number  of  children  in  proportion 
to  population  who  attended  school  in  England  before 
the  passage  of  the  half-time  school  and  ten-hour  laws 
was  one  fourth  less  than  in  the  low  countries,  one 
third  less  than  in  Switzerland  and  Scandinavia,  and 
nearly  one  half  less  than  in  Germany  ;  and  in  1878  it 
was  equal  to  that  of  Germany,  greater  than  that  of 
any  other  country  in  Europe,  and  about  seventy  per 
cent  above  the  continental  average,  having  increased 
about  eighty  per  cent. 

Another  evidence  of  the  greater  progress  in  the  gen- 
eral intelligence  of  the  masses  in  England,  as  com- 
pared with  other  countries,  is  shown  by  the  greater  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  letters  sent  through  the  mails 
per  capita  of  the  population,  as  will  be  seen  by  the 
following  post-office  returns  for  1867  and  1877  : 


Countries. 


Great  Britain 

France ... 

Germany 

Switzerland 

Low  Countries 

Scandinavia. . . 

Austria 

Spain  and  Portugal 

Italy 

Greece 

Russia 


1867. 


27 
10 

9 
24 

9 
7 
6 

4 
3 

li 
f 


1877. 


35 
10 

15 

30 

14 

9 

8 

5 
4 
2 

I 


Actual  In- 
crease per 
Capita. 


342  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  letter-writing,  which  is  one 
of  the  best  evidences  of  intelligence  and  general  cul- 
ture, has  not  only  increased  during  the  decade  referred 
to  thirty  per  cent  per  capita  more  in  England  than 
in  any  other  country  in  Europe,  and  two  hundred  and 
fifty  per  cent  more  than  the  average  on  the  continent, 
and,  with  the  exception  of  Switzerland,  it  has  more 
than  doubled  that  of  any  other  country  in  Europe. 

Poverty,  ignorance,  and  immorality  being  the  nat- 
ural accompaniments  of  each  other  (which  all  statis- 
ticians now  admit),  a  permanent  improvement  in  the 
material  conditions  and  an  advance  in  the  general  in- 
telligence may  be  taken  as  implying  higher  morality.* 
Accordingly,  we  find  that  crime  in  proportion  to 
population  has  diminished  seventy-eight  per  cent  in 
England  since  i850,t  only  a  little  over  thirty  per 
cent  in  France,  and  twenty-five  in  Germany  during 
the  same  period  ;  while  in  Italy  there  has  been  no 
perceptible  decrease  of  crime  during  that  time.  And, 
as  we  have  seen  in  the  last  chapter,  the  number  of 
paupers,  as  compared  with  population,  has  decreased 
sixty-one  per  cent  since  1850,  while  in  France  they 
have  slightly  increased  (one  fourth  of  one  per  cent).:j: 

Although  the  number  of  paupers  has  not  been  di- 
minished in  France  during  the  last  thirty  years,  it  is 
lower  there  than  in  any  other  country  except  England. 
This   shows   that   the  number  of  paupers  was  much 


*  "  That  public  morality  has  risen  in  every  country  in  the  same  de- 
gree as  instruction  is  fully  proved  by  the  statistics  of  crime.  In  Great 
Britain,  for  example,  the  annual  convictions  compared  to  population 
have  fallen  sixty  per  cent  in  the  last  forty  years." — MulhaU's  "  Prog- 
ress of  the  World,**  p.  102. 

f  Chapter  VII.,  Part  III.,  p.  319. 

X  MulhaU's  "  Progress  of  the  World,*'  p.  546. 


PAUPERISM  IN    VARIOUS  COUNTRIES. 


343 


smaller  prior  to  1850  in  the  former  than  in  the  latter 
country.  Through  the  influences  to  which  we  have  re- 
ferred, since  that  time  they  have  been  so  greatly  re- 
duced in  England,  while  remaining  stationary  in 
France,  that  to-day,  although  England  keeps  a  more 
complete  registry  of  her  needy  poor,  she  has  a  smaller 
number  of  paupers  per  hundred  of  the  population  than 
any  other  European  country,  as  the  following  official 
statement  for  1880  clearly  shows  : 


Countries. 

Total  Number 
of  Paupers. 

No.  per  1000 
of  the  Popu- 
lation. 

1,037,000 
1,151,000 
1,220,000 
1,365,000 
1,310,000 
140,000 
301,000 
1,010,000 

30* 
32 
35 
48 
50 
54 
38 
105 

France   

Italy 

Prussia 

S  wit7'»rlanrl                                             ...     ...... 

y^ygragfe                        .                 

49 

■ 

51 

From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  there  has  not  only 
been  a  greater  diminution  of  pauperism  in  England 
than  in  any  other  country  since  1850,  but  that  in  1880 
it  was  actually  seven  per  cent  less  than  the  lowest,  and 
forty-two  per  cent  less  than  the  average  in  continental 
countries,  and  in  1885  the  difference  was  still  greater. 

Evidence  of  this  kind  could  be  almost  indefinitely 
increased,  but  enough  has  been  produced  to  clearly 
establish   the  truth  of  our  claim  that  every  phase  of 


*  In  1S85  there  were  only  a  little  over  twenty-one  paupers  to  the 
thousand  of  the  population  in  Great  Britain. 


344  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

social  progress — material,  intellectual,  and  moral — has 
been  strikingly  greater  in  England  since  the  adoption 
of  the  half-time  and  ten- hour  working  system  than  in 
any  other  country  in  Europe  which  has  not  adopted 
that  industrial  policy. 

If  we  compare  the  progress  of  the  political  freedom 
of  the  British  laborer  with  that  of  those  in  other  Euro- 
pean countries,  the  difference  is  equally  marked  in 
favor  of  England. 


Section  II. — Industrial  Progress  in  England  and  the 
United  States  Compared. 

In  view  of  the  higher  wages  and  superior  social  and 
political  condition  of  the  masses  in  this  country,  we 
have  come  to  habitually  regard  republican  institutions 
as  proof  against  the  influence  of  economic  conditions. 
Accordingly,  while  we  have  looked  with  some  degree 
of  sympathy  not  unmixed  with  self-conceit  upon  the 
industrial  condition  of  the  European  laborer,  we  have 
persistently — though,  perhaps,  to  a  large  extent  un- 
consciously— adopted  the  same  industrial  policy,  as 
though  the  same  causes  would  not  produce  the  same 
effects  here  as  in  Europe.  Under  the  spell  of  this 
optimistic  blindness,  we  have  accepted  England's 
economic  doctrine,  and  ignored  her  industrial  reforms. 
The  consequence  is,  that  the  same  industrial  and  social 
evils  which  we  have  vainly  endeavored  to  believe  were 
peculiar  to  Old  World  monarchies  have  become  a  per- 
manent feature  of  our  social  life  under  democratic  in- 
stitutions. 

Industrial  depressions  and  enforced  idleness,  with 
all    their    evil    consequences,    are    now    as    frequent 


INDUSTRIAL  DEPRESSIONS. 


345 


here   as    in    Europe,   as   the    following  table   clearly 
shows  : 


Great  Britain. 

France. 

United  States. 

Germany. 

Belgium. 

1803 

1804 

1810 

i8io 

.... 

1815 

1813 

1814 

.... 

.... 

1818 

1818 

1818 

1826 

1826 

1826 

.... 

.... 

1830 

1830 

.... 

.... 

1837 

1837 

1837 

1837 

1837 

1847 

1847 

1847 

1847 

1848 

1857 

1856 

1857 

1855 

1855 

1866 

1866 

1867 

1864 

1873 

1873 

1873 

1873 

1873 

1883 

1882 

1882 

1882 

1882 

1885 

1885 

1885 

1885 

1885 

The  pernicious  industrial  policy  pursued  in  this  coun- 
try, which  recognizes  the  laborer  only  as  a  physical 
factor  in  production,  while  ignoring  him  as  a  social 
factor  in  consumption,  forcing  him  to  accept  long  hours 
of  exhaustive  labor,  with  its  socially  degrading  belong- 
ings, has  greatly  neutralized  the  social  advantage  of 
our  republican  institutions.  As  a  consequence,  we 
are  to-day  brought  face  to  face  with  the  startling 
fact,  which  every  American  statesman  and  citizen  may 
well  take  seriously  to  heart,  that  during  the  last 
thirty-five  years  the  laboring  classes  in  this  country 
have  actually  made  less  progress  in  social  well-being 
than  those  of  monarchical  England. 

We  must  not  be  understood  as  saying  the  laborer  in 
England  is  better  off  to-day  than  the  laborer  in  this 
country,  nor  as  saying  that  the  economic  condition  of 
the  American  laborer  is  now  worse  than  it  was  in  1850. 
What  we  affirm,  and  what  the  facts  prove,  is  that 
the  progress  in  the  social  well-being  of  the  masses  since 


346  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

that  date  has  been  less  in  this  country  than  it  has 
been  in  England. 

If  we  compare  the  real  wages  —  the  amount  of 
wealth  obtainable  for  a  day's  labor — in  this  country  and 
England  in  1850  and  at  the  present  time,  we  shall 
find  not  merely  that  wages  have  risen  a  greater  per 
cent,  but  that  the  absolute  increase  has  been  greater 
in  England  than  here. 

In  the  last  chapter  (page  246),  it  will  be  remembered 
we  found  that  the  rate  of  wages  in  England  (exclu- 
sive of  agriculture)  from  1850  to  1880-83,  taking  the 
most  moderate  estimates,  has  risen  two  dollars  and  ten 
cents  per  week,  and  that  during  the  same  period  the 
general  price  level  has  fallen — the  purchasing  capacity 
of  the  dollar  has  increased — about  fourteen  per  cent, 
making  a  net  increase  in  real  wages  of  sixty-five 
per  cent,  or  two  dollars  and  forty  cents  a  week.  Ac- 
cording to  the  returns  given  in  the  general  census  for 
1850,  i860,  1870,  and  1880,  the  average  wages  in  this 
country  rose  during  that  period  about  twenty-nine  per 
cent,  or  one  dollar  and  ninety-nine  cents  a  week."**" 
Mulhall  estimates  that  at  two  dollars  and  four  cents  a 
week.  If  we  examine  the  elaborate  returns  given  in 
the  twentieth  volume  of  the  United  States  Census  for 
1880,  which  is  specially  devoted  to  wages  and  prices 
in  this  country  from   1850  to  i88o,t  and  in  which  five 

*  This  is  based  upon  the  returns  for  three  hundred  and  thirty-two 
industries  or  branches  of  industries,  exclusive  of  agriculture.  See  vol- 
ume on  Manufactures  of  United  States,  Census  for  1880  ;  Table  I.  on 
Manufactures,  pp.  5-8,  and  general  remarks  on  manufactures,  pp. 
12-20. 

f  Speaking  of  the  tables  contained  in  the  above  volume  of  the  Cen- 
sus Reports,  Professor  Francis  A.  Walker  says  :  "  The  tables  which 
are  embraced  in  the  following  report  of  Special  Agent  Weeks  consti- 
tute, it  is  believed,  the  largest  magazine  of  statistics  relating  to  the 


PRICES  IN  THE    UNITED   STATES.  347 

hundred  and  sixty-three  pages  are  devoted  to  tables 
of  wages,  embracing  every  occupation  (outside  of  agri- 
culture) in  all  the  States,  we  find  the  average  wages  in 
those  industries  which  existed  at  both  dates  have  in- 
creased two  dollars  and  twenty-four  cents  a  week. 

But  in  order  to  understand  the  amount  of  social 
well-being  represented  in  this  rise  of  wages,  we  must 
ascertain  the  movement  of  prices  during  the  same 
period.  From  the  price  tables  given  by  Mulhall  "^  for 
each  decade  from  1825-30  to  1881-83,  the  average 
price  of  a  given  quantity  of  sixteen  principal  articles, 
including  flour,  meat,  groceries,  dairy  products,  cot- 
ton, wool,  leather,  coal,  iron,  etc.,  rose  from  1841-50 
to  1881-83  twenty-nine  per  cent,  while  that  of  cloth- 
ing and  furniture  fell  nearly  thirty  per  cent.  Assum- 
ing this  to  constitute  ten  per  cent  of  the  laborer's  ex- 
penditure (which  is  a  very  liberal  estimate  f),  it  would 
make  a  rise  in  the  general  price  level  of  twenty-six  per 
cent  during  that  period.  According  to  the  very  ex- 
tensive investigation  of  prices  in  Massachusetts  made 
by  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  the  general  price 
level  in  that  State,  from  1830  to  i860,  rose  12.70  per 
cent,:}:  and  from   i860  to  1878  it  rose  14.50  per  cent,§ 

wages  of  labor  to  be  found  in  any  single  publication.  .  .  .  While  no 
large  body  of  statistics  can  be  assumed  to  be  free  from  error,  the  fol- 
lowing collection  of  statistical  data  relating  to  the  wages  of  labor  in 
the  United  States  is  believed  to  have  been  as  thoroughly  tested  and 
as  carefully  purged  as  it  is  reasonable  to  expect  in  the  case  of  any 
statistical  work  whatsoever.  All  the  virtue  there  is  in  frequent  re- 
vision has  been  imparted  to  these  tables." 

*  "  History  of  Prices,"  pp.  183,  184. 

f  See  Report  of  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  1879,  p.  89 ;  also 
Engel's  "  Law  of  Consumption,"  ibid.^  1885,  p.  152. 

X  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  (Massachusetts),  1885, 
p.  466. 

§  Ibid.,  1879.     Tables  VIL,  VIII.,  IX.,  and  X.,  pp.  87-89. 


348  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

making  a  rise  for  the  whole  period  of  27.20  per  cent. 
And  from  the  returns  of  the  Census  Bureau,  given  in 
the  report  already  referred  to,*  the  price  of  a  given 
quantity  of  forty  articles  of  food,  clothes,  and  fuel  in 
the  leading  cities  and  States  of  the  Union  from  1850 
to  1880  rose  a  little  over  .twenty  per  cent. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  Mulhall's  investigations, 
covering  the  forty-three  years  from  1840  to  1883,  show 
a  rise  of  prices  of  twenty-six  per  cent  ;  that  of 
Colonel  Wright,  embracing  the  forty-eight  years  from 
1830  to  1878,  shows  a  rise  of  27.20  per  cent  in  the 
price  level  ;  and  that  of  the  United  States  Census 
Bureau  for  the  thirty  years  from  1850  to  1880  shows  a 
rise  of  20. 17  per  cent. 

Now,  assuming  that  half  the  rise  which  Colonel 
Wright  found  to  have  taken  place  between  1830  and 
i860  to  have  occurred  before  1850  (which  is  about 
what  is  indicated  by  Mulhall's  tables  for  1825-30  and 
1841-50),  and  allowing  the  same  ratio  for  the  ten  years 
covered  by  Mulhall  prior  to  1850,  the  result  of  these 
three  distinct  investigations  of  the  movement  of  the 
general  price  level  in  this  countfy  from  1850  to  1880 
will  stand  as  follows  : 

Percentage 
of  Increase. 

Mulhall  (1850-1883) 23.00 

Colonel  Wright  (1850-1878) 20.85 

United  States  Census  (1850-1880) 20.17 

While  none  of  these  results  may  be  literally  true, 
their  close  similarity  affords  indisputable  evidence  of 
their  approximate  correctness. 

Taking  the  most  favorable  estimate  (which  is  prob- 
ably the  nearest  correct),  the  price  level  has  risen — 

*  Twentieth  volume  of  United  States  Census,  1880,  special  report 
on  wages  and  prices. 


MISLEADING  AGGREGATES.  349 

the  purchasing  capacity  of  the  dollar  has  fallen — since 
1850  in  this  country,  twenty  per  cent.  If  we  deduct 
this  from  the  rise  of  two  dollars  and  twenty-four  cents 
in  nominal  wages,  it  leaves  a  net  increase  of  real  wages 
in  this  country  since  1850  of  one  dollar  and  seventy- 
nine  cents  a  week,  as  compared  with  two  dollars  and 
forty  cents  a  week  in  England."^  In  other  words, 
notwithstanding  our  political  and  natural  advantages, 
the  material  well-being  of  the  average  artisan  in  mo- 
narchical England  has  actually  increased  sixty-four 
cents  a  week  more  since  1850  than  that  of  the  laborer 
in  republican  America. 

If  we  consider  the  social  well-being  of  the  people 
as  indicated  by  the  national  income,  either  inclusive 
or  exclusive  of  taxation,  instead  of  by  wages,  we  shall 
find  the  facts  all  point  to  the  same  result — viz.^  that 
the  increase  in  wealth  in  proportion  to  the  population 
has  been  greater  in  England  than  in  this  country. 
There  are  few  questions  of  fact  upon  which  the  general 
public  are  more  misled  by  our  public  men  than  upon 
this.  1  he  advocates  of  high  tariff,  both  of  the  press 
and  the  forum,  are  never  tired  of  citing  almost  be- 
wildering statistics  showing  the  enormous  increase 
of  wealth  in  this  country,  which  they  ascribe  to  tariff 
legislation. 

They  may  show  us— as  Mr.  Blaine  frequently  did 
during  the  presidential  canvass  in  1884 — that  from 
1870  to  1880  the  annual  income  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States  rose  in  round  numbers  from  five  billion 
and  ninety-eight  million  to  six  billion  seven  hundred 


*  The  change  in  house  rent  in  the  two  countries  has  been  about  the 
same.  In  England  in  1880  house  rent  took  the  earnings  of  twenty- 
nine  days  a  year,  and  in  this  country  it  required  about  thirty. 


350  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS, 

and  forty-nine  million  dollars,  an  actual  increase  of 
one  billion  six  hundred  and  fifty-one  million  dollars  a 
year ;  while  in  England,  where  the  income  is  the  next 
greatest  in  the  world,  it  only  rose  during  the  same 
period  from  four  billion  six  hundred  and  thirteen  mill- 
ion to  five  billion  five  hundred  and  forty-nine  million 
dollars,  or  nine  hundred  and  thirty-six  million  dollars 
a  year.  Thus  showing  that  the  actual  increase  in  the 
annual  earnings  of  the  people  of  Great  Britain  during 
the  decade  from  1870  to  1880  was  seventy-six  percent 
less  than  that  of  those  in  the  United  States. 

These  facts  are  presented  to  prove,  and  are  gener- 
ally accepted  as  proving,  that  the  well-being  of  the 
masses  in  this  country  had  increased  during  that  decade 
seventy-six  per  cent  more  than  that  of  those  in  Eng- 
land. This  conclusion,  however,  as  we  shall  soon  see, 
is  as  false  as  the  figures  are  correct.  The  error  is  not 
in  the  facts,  but  in  the  half  use  made  of  them.  As  a 
measure  of  the  progress  in  the  material  well-being  of 
the  masses,  the  increase  in  the  aggregate  national  in- 
come, taken  alone,  is  even  more  misleading  than  is 
the  percentage  of  increase  in  wages  before  referred  to. 
Any  percentage  of  increase,  however  small,  in  the  real 
wages  of  the  laborer  indicates  some  progress  in  his 
material  well-being,  but  the  aggregate  income  of  a 
nation  may  double  without  any  improvement  ;  nay, 
even  with  a  deterioration  in  the  well-being  of  the  peo- 
ple. The  wealth  or  poverty  of  the  people  in  any  com- 
munity does  not  depend  upon  the  actual  amount  of 
the  aggregate  income  of  the  nation,  but  upon  the  ratio 
between  that  income  and  the  population.  For  ex- 
ample, the  aggregate  income  of  Russia  is  four  times 
that  of  Holland,  but  the  population  is  more  than 
twenty  times  that  of  Holland.     Consequently,  the  in- 


INCREASED  EARNINGS  PER   CAPITA.'  351 

come  per  capita  (real  well-being)  in  the  latter  is  nearly 
three  times  as  great  as  that  of  the  former,  being  one 
hundred  and  twenty-four  dollars  and  eighty-six  cents  in 
Holland  as  against  forty-eight  dollars  and  forty-eight 
cents  in  Russia.  If  we  consider  the  increase  in  the 
annual  income  of  England  and  this  country  from  1870 
to  1880  in  this  light,  which  is  the  only  sense  in  which 
it  can  be  taken,  as  indicating  the  economic  well-being 
of  the  people,  we  find  the  charm  of  these  seemingly 
optimistic  aggregates  is  greatly  modified.  For  while  it 
is  true  that  the  annual  income  during  that  decade  in- 
creased one  billion  six  hundred  and  fifty-one  million 
dollars  in  this  country  as  against  nine  hundred  and 
thirty-six  million  dollars  in  Great  Britain,  the  increase 
in  our  population  was  more  than  three  times  as  great 
as  that  of  England.  The  consequence  is  that  the  large 
aggregate  in  this  country  only  yields  an  actual  increase 
of  about  two  dollars  and  sixteen  cents  per  capita  of  the 
population,  while  that  of  England  gave  an  increase  of 
about  fourteen  dollars  and  thirty-six  cents  per  capita. 
There  is  one  circumstance,  h6wever,  which  will  be 
commonly  regarded  as  greatly  modifying  the  above 
result  in  favor  of  the  United  States.  It  is  the  fact 
that  taxation  in  this  country  during  the  period  referred 
to  has  been  reduced  five  dollars  and  twenty-eight 
cents  per  capita,  while  that  of  Great  Britain  has 
been  increased  one  dollar  and  forty-four  cents  per 
capita.  If  we  assume  that  the  whole  amount  taken 
in  taxes  is  wasted,  and  recognize  only  that  por- 
tion of  the  income  as  representing  real  well-being 
which  is  over  and  above  taxation,*^  the  facts  would 


*  This  would  be  a  mistake,  however,  for  while,  perhaps,  a  larger  per 
cent  of  the  wealth  taken  by  taxation  is  unwisely  spent,  a  considerable 


352  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

still  show  that  the  net  increase  was  greatly  in  favor 
of  England. 

By  adding  the  five  dollars  and  twenty-eight  cents 
per  capita  saved  by  reduced  taxation  to  the  one  dol- 
lar and  sixty  cents  gross  increase  in  this  country, 
and  deducting  the  one  dollar  and  forty-four  cents  per 
capita  of  increased  taxation  from  the  fourteen  dollars 
and  thirty-six  cents  increase  in  the  gross  income  in 
England,  the  net  increase  in  the  annual  income  per 
capita  of  the  population  (free  of  taxes)  in  the  two 
countries  stand  :  United  States,  six  dollars  and  eighty- 
eight  cents  ;  Great  Britain,  twelve  dollars  and  ninety- 
two  cents. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that,  viewing  the  facts  from  the 
most  favorable  standpoint  possible  for  this  country 
(even  unfairly  so),  we  find  that  instead  of  the  progress 
in  the  well-being  of  the  masses  having  been  seventy- 
six  per  cent  greater  here  than  in  England  (as  indicated 
by  the  aggregate  national  income),  the  actual  increase 
per  capita  has  been  over  eighty  per  cent  greater  in 
England  than  in  the  United  States. 

If  we  compare  the  progress  in  the  general  intelli- 
gence, morality,  and  freedom  in  the  two  countries,  we 
shall  find  the  facts  are  equally  in  favor  of  England. 
The  number  of  children  attending  school,  as  compared 
to  population,  since  1850,  has  increased  forty-two  per 
cent  in  England,  and  less  than  twenty-five  per  cent  in 
the   United   States.*     The  same  fact   is  further  indi- 

portion  of  all  taxes  are  used  for  purposes  which  really  represent  social 
well-being.  For  example,  all  wealth  devoted  to  public  improvements, 
education,  administration  of  justice,  protection  of  life  and  property, 
etc.,  tend  to  increase  the  value  of  wealth  and  the  social  safety  and 
comfort  of  the  community. 

*  Not  that  the  attendance  in  proportion  to  the  population  is  actually 
greater  in  England  than  in  this  country,  but  that  the  increase  during 


CRIME  IN  ENGLAND  AND  AMERICA.  353 

cated  by  the  proportion  of  the  population  who  write 
letters.  According  to  the  post-office  returns  for  the 
two  countries,  we  find  that  the  number  of  letters  sent 
through  the  mails  per  head  of  the  population  from 
1867  to  1877  increased  eight  in  England  as  against 
four  in  the  United  States. 

The  criminal  calendar  shows  that  the  number  of 
convictions  are  (1878)  as  i  in  900  of  the  population  in 
this  country,  as  against  I  in  every  1880  of  the  popula- 
tion in  Great  Britain.  In  1885"^  they  had  fallen  to  i 
in  3272  in  England,  while  in  this  country  they  have 
remained  practically  unchanged,  being  in  1887  f  still 
I  in  every  930  of  the  population. 

It  is  a  notorious  fact  that  during  the  last  quarter 
of  a  centur}'-  the  social  and  political  institutions  in  Eng- 
land have  constantly  tended  toward  greater  democracy 
for  the  masses,  while  in  this  country,  as  elsewhere 
shown,:}:  the  tendency  has  been  increasingly  in  the  di- 
rection of  contracting  the  democratic  principle  in  our 
government.  This  movement  to  limit  instead  of  to 
extend  the  social  influence  and  political  power  of  the 
masses  has  become  strikingly  pronounced  in  municipal 
and  state  governments,  and  is  now  beginning  to 
show  itself  in  our  national  institutions.  All  this  does 
not  mean  that  the  laborer  in  England  to-day  is  eco- 
nomically better,  off  or  politically  freer  than  the  laborer 

the  last  thirty-five  years  has  been  greater  there  than  here.  In  1830  it 
was  forty  per  cent  less  there  than  here,  and  in  1880  it  was  only  ten 
per  cent  less.     To-day  it  is  probably  about  the  same. 

*  First  Report  of  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor,  1886, 
p.  431  ;  also  Sir  John  Lubbock's  "Digest  of  Statistical  Report  for 
1885." 

f  Second  Report  of  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor— 
"Convict  Labor,"  1887,  p.  288. 

X  See  next  chapter. 


354  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS, 

in  this  country,  but  it  does  most  emphatically  mean 
that  he  is  making  greater  progress  in  that  country. 

Therefore,  despite  the  depressive  influence  of  an 
odious  land  system,  a  privileged  aristocracy,  a  state 
church,  an  obstructive  House  of  Lords,  and  an  opulent 
and  obdurate  monarchy,  it  is  manifest  that  the  eco- 
nomic, social,  and  political  progress  of  the  masses  under 
the  short-hour  and  half-time  regime  in  England  has 
not  only  been  greater  than  that  of  any  other  country 
in  Europe,  but  even  greater  than  that  of  this  re- 
public during  the  same  period. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

THE    SOCIAL    AND    POLITICAL    NECESSITY    OF    AN 
EIGHT-HOUR  AND   HALF-TIME   SYSTEM. 

It  is  now  clear  that  the  proposition  for  a  general 
reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor  and  the  adoption  of 
half-time  schools  for  working  children  is  not  only  the- 
oretically sound  and  practically  feasible,  but  as  an 
effectual  means  for  increasing  the  social  opportunities 
and  promoting  industrial  progress,  it  is  more  potent 
than  are  ideal  political  institutions. 

This  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  during  the  last  thir- 
ty-five years  the  laboring  classes  have  made  more 
real  progress  with  short  hours  under  a  monarchy  in 
England  than  with  long  hours  under  a  republic  in 
America.  Nor  is  this  due  to  our  pohtical  insti- 
tutions, but,  on  the  contrary,  it  affords  a  striking 
confirmation  of  the  principle  we  have  so  frequently 
affirmed,  that  political  institutions  are  not  the  cause 
but  the  consequence  of  the  industrial  conditions  and 
social  character  of  the  masses.  Hence,  instead  of 
regarding  our  social  evils  as  the  result  of  our  political 
institutions,  it  is  only  by  improving  the  industrial  con- 
ditions and  elevating  the  social  character  of  the  masses 
that  we  can  maintain  the  integrity  of  our  democratic 
institutions. 

The  fact  that  the  general  adoption  of  an  eight-hour 
and  half-time  system  would  be  an  economic  advantage, 
as  we  have  seen,  to  all  classes  of  the  community — to 


356  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

say  nothing  of  the  humane  and  moral  effects — is 
sufficient  to  warrant  the  demand  for  its  immediate 
adoption.  But  its  social  and  political  necessity  is 
more  imperative  than  its  most  sanguine  friends  have 
hitherto  appeared  to  realize,  or  its  opponents  have 
ever  been  able  to  understand.  As  we  have  so  often 
remarked — and  it  can  hardly  be  repeated  too  often  ;  at 
least,  until  it  is  much  better  understood — the  true 
barometer  of  human  progress  is  the  social  character 
of  the  people.  That  is  the  dial  upon  which  the  true 
state  of  civilization,  in  all  ages  and  countries,  and 
under  all  conditions,  is  most  correctly  registered. 
While  it  is  futile  to  endeavor  to  promote  intellectual 
and  moral  development  and  social  and  poHtical  free- 
dom without  industrial  prosperity,  it  is  equally  impos- 
sible to  permanently  accelerate  industrial  progress  by 
any  means  which  are  inimical  to  the  social  and  politi- 
cal development  of  the  masses.  Yet  this  is  what  the 
modern  industrial  policy  of  long  hours  of  exhausting, 
unwholesome  labor  would  seem  to  be  specially  de- 
signed to  undertake. 

As  the  complexity  of  productive  methods  has  in- 
creased and  the  factory  system  has  extended,  an  in- 
dustrial policy  has  gradually  come  into  vogue,  the  evil 
social  effects  of  which  the  employing  class  have  no 
adequate  conception.  Nor  is  this  a  necessary  feat- 
ure of  the  present  industrial  system,  as  is  generally 
assumed.  There  is  no  economic  or  social  reason  why 
the  use  of  improved  methods  of  production  should  be 
inimical  to  social  progress.  Indeed,  from  the  very 
nature  of  things,  it  should  be  the  reverse.  There  is 
nothing  in  the  division  and  concentration  of  labor  and 
the  use  of  machinery  that  necessarily  involves  the 
physical  deterioration  or  moral  and  social  degradation 


THE    WAGES  SYSTEM,  357 

of  the  laborer.  Nor  do  we  think  it  would  be  just 
to  assert  that  conditions  which  lead  to  these  results  are 
due  to  special  meanness  on  the  part  of  the  employing 
class.  Employers,  as  a  rule,  would  gladly  do  anything 
in  their  power  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  labor- 
ing classes,  if  they  only  knew  what  to  do  without  in- 
jury to  themselves.  If  the  present  social  evils  were  a 
necessary  part  of  the  wages  system  or  of  the  natural 
depravity  of  the  employing  class,  reform  would  be 
possible  only  by  the  entire  overthrow  of  existing  insti- 
tutions, and  a  radical  change  in  human  nature,  which 
might  fairly  be  regarded  as  a  hopeless  task. 

But,  fortunately  for  civilization,  such  is  not  the 
case.  The  mere  fact  of  working  for  wages  does  not 
necessarily  involve  either  industrial  hardship  or  social 
disadvantage.  The  laborer  is  not  rich  or  poor  by  vir- 
tue of  the  particular  means  by  which  he  obtains  his 
wealth,  but  according  to  the  amount  of  wealth  he  re- 
ceives. Wages,  as  already  explained,*  are  simply 
stipulated,  as  distinguished  from  contingent  incomes. 
When  the  laborer  worked  for  himself,  his  income  was 
contingent  upon  the  immediate  results  of  his  labor. 
When  he  works  for  another,  it  is  stipulated  in  advance. 
And  there  is  nothing  inherent  in  this  economic  relation 
to  make  the  stipulated  income  less  than  the  contin- 
gent. Indeed,  it  is  under  the  regime  of  stipulated  in- 
comes (wages)  that  the  laboring  classes — and  all  other 
classes  —  have  made  their  greatest  progress.  The 
stipulated  income,  of  the  laborer  to-day  is  many  times 
greater  than  it  was  when  it  was  contingent — i.e.,  when 
he  worked  for  himself  and  owned   all  the  product,  f 

*  See  Chapter  II.,  Part  II.,  pp.  73,  74. 
f  See  Chapter  I.,  Part  I.,  pp.  19-21. 


358  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

Indeed,  all  industrial  differentiation  tends  to  the 
specialization  of  labor,  and  all  specialization  of  labor 
tends  to  the  stipulation  of  incomes.  Accordingly, 
in  the  most  civilized  countries  we  find  the  largest  per 
cent  of  wage  and  salary  receivers,  and  uniformly  the 
highest  incomes.  In  short,  there  is  nothing  in  the 
wages  or  stipulated  income  system,  per  se^  to  prevent 
wages  from  rising  from  five  hundred  to  five  thousand 
or  to  ten  thousand  dollars  a  year,  any  more  than  there 
was  to  prevent  them  from  rising  from  fifty  dollars  a 
year  in  the  fourteenth  century  to  five  hundred  dollars 
at  the  present  time. 

No  ;  the  trouble  is  not  due  to  any  inherent  principle 
in  the  existing  industrial  system  or  in  human  nature, 
but  to  mistaken  conceptions  of  the  law  of  economic  re- 
lations. The  employing  classes  have  been  taught  to  be- 
lieve that  profit  is  the  centre  around  which  all  economic 
and  social  interests  revolve  ;  that  the  prosperity  of  the 
community  depends  upon  that  of  the  employing  class  ; 
"  that  profits  rise  as  wages  fall ;''  *  and  therefore  that 
the  interests  of  the  employing  class — and  hence  of 
the  whole  community — are  best  promoted  by  keeping 
down  wages. 

These  inverted  notions  of  economic  movement,  due 
mainly  to  a  misconception  of  the  law  of  wages,  have 
naturally  led  to  a  mistaken  and  most  uneconomic  in- 
dustrial policy.  Viewing  the  laborer  simply  as  so 
much  productive  force — failing  entirely  to  recognize 
his  importance  as  a  consumer — how  to  make  labor 
cheap  has  been  the  important  object.  Accordingly, 
everything  which  tended  to  promote  this  object  has 

*  See  Ricardo's  Works,  pp.  63-75  I  also  Mill's  "  Political  Econ- 
omy," Vol.  II.,  p.  512. 


MISTAKEJSr  INDUSTRIAL   POLICY.  359 

been  uniformly  encouraged,  and  whatever  seemed  in- 
imical to  it  has  been  vigorously  opposed  by  the  em- 
ploying class. 

In  pursuing  this  policy  they  have  constantly  endea- 
vored not  only  to  give  the  laborer  the  minimum 
amount  of  wages,  but  also  to  procure  the  maximum 
amount  of  labor  for  it.  To  accomplish  this,  the  work- 
ing day  has  invariably  been  made  as  long  as  possible, 
being  in  many  cases  twelve  and  thirteen,  and  in  the 
Southern  States  and  in  many  countries  in  Europe 
fourteen  and  fifteen  hours  a  day,  including  women  and 
children,  and  this  very  often  under  the  most  unwhole- 
some and  degrading  conditions. 

In  proportion  as  the  use  of  improved  machinery  is 
extended,  and  the  specialization  of  labor  is  increased, 
does  this  labor  become  physically  and  nervously  more 
exhausting  ;  and  in  proportion  as  this  pressure  in- 
creases, unless  the  working  time  is  correspondingly  re- 
duced, the  laborer's  susceptibility  to  the  refining  and 
elevating  influences  of  his  social  environment  is  les- 
sened, and  his  leisure  moments  find  him  dull  and  in- 
different to  all  moral  and  political  influences. 

The  inevitable  tendency  of  these  conditions  is  to 
cause  the  laborer  to  gravitate  toward  the  saloon  rather 
than  to  the  reading-room,  lecture  hall,  museum,  and 
theatre  for  his  instruction  and  entertainment.  Persons 
who  have  to  be  subject  to  such  long  hours  of  con- 
tinued toil  from  childhood,  amid  the  foul  air  of  mines 
and  the  sweltering  heat  and  stifling  atmosphere  of 
mills  and  factories  for  a  poor  existence,  cannot  be  ex- 
pected to  develop  the  ambition  and  force  of  character 
necessary  to  inspire  and  elevate  their  domestic  and 
social  relations. 

And  the  effect  of  these  conditions  upon  the  women 


360  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

and  children  is  even  worse.  The  forcing  of  women, 
especially  wives  and  mothers,  into  the  factory,  tends 
directly  to  sap  the  very  source  from  whence  the 
springs  of  character  arise.  Just  in  proportion  as 
woman  is  transferred  from  the  home  to  the  workshop, 
is  her  inspiring  and  refining  influence  in  the  domestic 
circle  destroyed  ;  and  hence  the  social  environment, 
and  therefore  the  character  of  the  children,  the  family, 
and  ultimately  that  of  the  whole  industrial  community, 
is  thereby  lowered. 

The  tendency  of  the  modern  industrial  policy  to 
thus  limit  the  social  opportunity  of  the  masses  is 
necessarily  inimical  to  progress  ;  but  in  no  country  is 
its  evil  influence  so  dangerous  as  in  this  ;  and  while 
we,  of  all  nations,  can  least  afford  to  lower  the  social 
character  of  our  laboring  classes,  we  are  more  exposed 
than  any  other  country  in  the  world  to  the  causes 
which  naturally  tend  to  produce  that  result.  Nor  do 
our  common  schools  afford  us  any  adequate  protection 
against  the  evils  to  which  we  refer.  It  is  true  that  our 
schools,  to  which  all  are  freely  admitted,  afford  a  con- 
siderable degree  of  opportunity  for  intellectual  and 
social  development  ;  but  a  very  large  portion  of  the 
laboring  class  does  not,  except  to  a  very  slight  extent, 
go  through  the  schools.  In  the  first  place,  a  very  large 
and  increasing  proportion  of  our  laboring  population, 
through  industrial  conditions  over  which  they  have  no 
control,  are  practically  outside  the  pale  of  our  social 
and  educational  institutions.  Were  the  laboring 
classes  in  this  country  wholly  composed  of  our  native 
population,  reared  under  the  influence  of  republican 
institutions,  we  might  witness  a  different  state  of 
things. 

In  this  we  are  unlike  any  other  country.    One  of  the 


OUR   FOREIGN  POPULATION,  36s: 

characteristic  features  of  our  phenomenal  growth  in 
wealth  and  population  is  that  a  large  per  cent  of 
the  laboring  classes,  and  especially  those  employed 
in  the  industries  where  the  worst  conditions  most 
prevail,  are  foreigners  or  born  of  foreign  parents,  whose 
social  characters  have  been  moulded  by  Old  World  con- 
ditions. To  these  the  common  school  constitutes  but 
a  very  small  factor  in  their  social  environment.  For 
the  most  part,  those  who  are  born  in  foreign  countries 
do  not  reach  our  common  schools  at  all.  They  go 
directly  into  our  mines,  factories,  and  workshops, 
where,  together  with  the  tenement  hovels  and  their 
surroundings,  they  spend  their  lives  amid  an  industrial 
and  social  environment  which  is  seldom  very  little 
better  and  sometimes  even  worse  than  that  of  the 
Old  World. 

Nor  does  the  common  school  form  a  much  greater 
proportion  of  the  environment  at  least  of  a  very 
large  per  cent,  of  those  born  here  of  foreign  parents. 
Indeed,  it  cannot  reasonably  be  expected  to  be  so. 
Parents  into  whose  lives  the  refining  and  elevating  in- 
fluence of  education  and  social  culture  never  entered 
cannot  be  expected  to  have  any  due  appreciation  of 
the  importance  of  education  for  their  children. 

The  consequence  is,  as  all  investigation  into  the  con- 
dition of  the  schooling  and  employment  of  working  chil- 
dren shows,  that  through  the  indifference  of  the  parents 
to  the  importance  of  education,  and  the  need  they 
have  through  their  poverty  for  the  few  cents  a  day  the 
little  ones  can  obtain  for  working,  combined  with  the 
insatiable  desire  of  the  employers  to  obtain  cheap 
labor,  children  are  forced  into  factories  and  work- 
shops at  seven  and  eight  years  of  age.  Although  in 
many  states  the  law  forbids  the  employment  of  chil- 
17 


362  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

dren  under  ten  years  of  age,  yet  through  the  causes 
to  which  we  have  referred,  aided  by  ignorance  of  our 
language,  and  the  indifference  of  the  authorities,  it  is 
flagrantly  evaded  by  a  wilful  misrepresentation  of  the 
children's  ages,  in  order  to  get  them  out  of  the  school 
and  into  the  workshop.  This  is  done  to  an  extent 
wholly  incredible  to  those  unacquainted  with  factory 
life  and  practices  in  this  country. 

Indeed,  the  extent  to  which  this  occurs,  even  in 
New  England,  especially  among  the  non-English- 
speaking  operatives,  is  positively  appalling.  I  have 
myself  known  parents  who  actually  changed  the  ages 
of  all  their  children  in  the  register  in  their  family 
Bible,  dating  their  births  uniformly  two  years  earlier, 
in  order  to  evade  the  law  and  get  their  children  into 
the  mill  two  years  earlier  ;  and  this  solely  for  the  sake 
of  the  twenty  to  twenty-five  cents  a  day  they  would 
obtain  by  their  labor  in  the  factory. 

Manifestly,  therefore,  that  portion  of  our  laboring 
population  which  is  of  foreign  birth  or  parentage 
may  properly  be  regarded,  for  all  general,  social,  and 
economic  purposes,  as  outside  the  influence  of  our 
common  schools.  Hence,  to  the  extent  that  our 
laboring  classes  are  composed  of  persons  of  foreign 
birth  or  parentage  are  they,  for  the  most  part,  de- 
prived of  the  social  opportunities  indispensable  to  the 
development  of  the  mental,  moral,  and  social  character 
necessary  to  the  safe  citizenship  of  a  republic. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  realize  the  extent  to  which 
the  wage-workers  of  this  country  are  composed  of  per- 
sons of  foreign  birth  or  parentage,  to  show  that  the 
question  of  the  social  opportunities  of  the  laboring 
classes  is  assuming  a  degree  of  social  and  political,  as 
well  as  economic,  importance  which  we  cannot  much 


OF  FOREIGN"  BIRTH  AND  PARENTAGE.  363 

longer  afford  to  ignore  with  safety  to  republican  insti- 
tutions. 

Out  of  the  17,392,099  persons  engaged  in  the  vari- 
ous industries  in  1880,  3,494,647  were  born  in  foreign 
countries,  4,368,309  were  born  here  of  one  or  both 
foreign  parents,  and  3,474,344  were  women  and  chil- 
dren under  fifteen  years  of  age.  In  other  words,  45.20 
per  cent  of  all  who  pursued  gainful  occupations  were 
of  foreign  birth  or  parentage,  and  19,98  per  cent  were 
women  and  children  under  fifteen  years  of  age. 

If  we  examine  the  proportion  in  which  these  are  dis- 
tributed among  the  various  industries,  the  importance 
of  the  point  to  which  we  have  referred  will  at  once  be 
apparent.  Taking  the  ratio  of  persons  born  in  this 
country  having  one  or  both  parents  of  foreign  birth 
as  I J  to  I,  which  is  about  the  proportion  they  sustain 
to  each  other  in  the  whole  population,  we  shall  find 
that,  taking  employers  and  employed  together,  the 
per  cent  of  those  engaged  in  the  various  occupations  in 
1880  who  were  of  foreign  birth  or  parentage  was  as 
follows  : 

All  occupations 45  20  per  cent. 

Agriculture 23.65        " 

Professional  and  personal  service 55.08        " 

Trade  and  transportation 56.99        " 

Manufacturing,  mining  and  mechanical     71.88        ** 

If  we  leave  out  the  profit,  rent,  and  salary-receiving 
classes,  and  consider  the  question  solely  in  relation  to 
those  who  work  for  wages,  the  extent  to  which  our  in- 
dustrial classes  are  composed  of  persons  of  foreign 
birth  or  parentage  will  be  more  distinctly  seen.  Out 
of  the  17,392,099  persons  engaged  in  occupations  for 
gain  in  this  country  in  1880,  there  were  10,547,814 
working  exclusively  for  wages.    These  were  distributed 


364  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

among  the  various  industries  as  follows  :  Agricultur- 
al laborers,  3,323,876  ;  domestic  servants,  1,075,745  ; 
transportation,  mercantile,  and  other  industries,  2,374,- 
618  ;  manufacturing,  mining,  and  mechanical  indus- 
tries, 3,773,575. 

In  these  industries  persons  of  foreign  birth  or  par- 
entage prevailed  in  about  the  following  proportions  : 
Agricultural  laborers,  23.85  per  cent  ;  domestic  ser- 
vants, 54  per  cent  ;  transportation,  mercantile,  and 
other  industries,  67.33  P^^*  cent  ;  manufacturing,  mer- 
cantile, and  mining  industries,  72.63  per  cent.  Taking 
fifty  of  the  principal  cities,  over  ninety-three  per  cent 
of  those  engaged  in  the  last-named  industries  are  of 
foreign  birth  or  parentage. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  of  the  nearly  seven  million 
of  laborers  employed  in  productive  industries,  outside 
of  agriculture,  about  seven  out  of  every  ten,  and  in 
fifty  of  the  principal  cities  more  than  nine  out  of  every 
ten,  are  of  foreign  birth  or  parentage.  It  should  also 
be  remembered  that  in  these  industries  there  is  a 
large  proportion  of  women  and  children.  In  1880,  in 
fifteen  important  manufacturing  industries,  including 
those  of  cotton,  woollen,  silk,  carpets,  hosiery,  cloth- 
ing, tobacco,  etc.,  67.29  per  cent  of  the  employes  were 
women  and  children  under  sixteen  years  of  age.* 

In  view  of  these  facts,  it  is  idle  to  talk  of  relying  for 
the  remedy  of  our  social  evils  solely  upon  the  influ- 
ence of  our  educational  institutions,  for  the  simple 
reason  that,  as  we  have  seen,  the  great  mass  of  our 
laboring  population  are,  at  least  until  the  third  gener- 
ation, practically  outside  the  influence  of  these  insti- 
tutions. 

*  United  States  Census,  1880,  volume  on  Manufactures,  p.  34. 


NOT  OPPOSED    TO  IMMIGRATION.  365 

It  must  not  be  inferred  from  this,  however,  that  I 
am  opposed  to  unaided  immigration.  I  should  just  as 
soon  think  of  opposing  the  use  of  improved  methods 
of  production.  I  refer  to  these  facts,  not  to  censure 
the  emigrant  or  to  prevent  his  immigration,  but  that 
we  may  not  lose  sight  of  the  true  nature  of  our  indus- 
trial and  social  conditions,  and  in  order  that  we  may- 
more  fully  realize  the  quality  of  the  social  material  out 
of  which,  as  economists  and  statesmen,  we  are  called 
upon  to  make  suitable  citizens  for  a  progressive  re- 
public. 

The  poverty  consequent  upon  the  low  industrial 
and  social  conditions  of  Europe  has  sent  millions  of 
her  people  here  to  make  for  themselves  homes.  They 
have  not  come  here  as  beggars,  but  as  producers  in 
search  of  an  opportunity  to  procure  for  themselves 
and  their  families  a  living,  and  to  improve  their  social 
condition,  which  privilege  was  denied  them  at  home. 
They  have  ploughed  our  prairies,  dug  our  mines,  built 
our  furnaces,  forges  and  factories,  and  covered  this 
continent  with  a  network  of  highways  for  travel,  trans- 
portation, and  communication,  the  like  of  which  the 
world  has  never  seen  before.  They  have  given  wealth 
and  power  to  us,  and  it  is  our  duty  to  create  social 
opportunity  for  them.  This  is  not  only  our  duty  to 
them,  but  it  is  an  imperative  necessity — the  only 
means  of  social  and  political  protection  to  ourselves. 

In  this  regard  we  have  been  very  negligent.  We 
have  vainly  endeavored  to  both  **  eat  our  cake  and 
keep  it."  Having  adopted  the  European  industrial 
policy,  born  of  a  one-eyed  political  economy,  which 
sees  the  laborer  as  a  factor  in  production,  but  not  as  a 
factor  in  consumption — as  the  preponderating  element 
in  the  general  market — we  have  made   as   much  of 


^66  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

him  as  possible  as  a  producer,  and  as  little  as  possi- 
ble of  him  as  a  consumer.  Under  our  spread-eagle 
offering  of  "an  asylum  for  the  oppressed  of  all 
lands,"  we  have  not  only  extended  a  general  invi- 
tation to  the  laborers  of  all  countries  to  come  among 
us,  but  we  have  taken  special  pains  to  approach  the 
poorest,  and  hence  socially  the  weakest  and  least  char- 
acterful, portion  of  the  laboring  classes  in  Europe  and 
Asia.  We  have  held  out  startling,  and  often  delusive, 
inducements  for  them  to  come  here,  sometimes  ac- 
tually importing  them  as  industrial  chattel. 

By  this  means,  instead  of  obtaining  the  most  ad- 
vanced and  intelligent  element,  which  unaided  emi- 
gration would  naturally  bring,  we  have  obtained  the 
most  ignorant  and  incompetent  portion  of  the  social 
product  of  European  and  Asiatic  countries. 

Indeed,  this  class  has,  for  the  most  part,  been  pre- 
ferred, because,  through  the  perverted  economic  esti- 
mate of  the  laborer  already  referred  to,  they  have  been 
regarded  as  being  cheapo  which  was  the  only  reason 
for  importing  them.  Then,  instead  of  surrounding 
them  with  the  best  social  conditions  possible,  we 
have  forced  them  into  the  very  worst  that  the  consen- 
sus of  the  community  would  tolerate.  We  have  turned 
them  into  our  factories,  mines,  and  workshops  almost 
without  regard  to  age,  sex,  or  even  sanitary  conditions. 
We  have  put  them  in  contact  with  the  most  im- 
proved and  high-speed  machinery  eleven,  twelve, 
and  sometimes  more  hours  a  day,  thereby  putting 
them  under  greater  physical  and  nervous  strain  than 
they  were  used  to  in  some  of  the  countries  of  the  Old 
World.  And  we  have  at  the  same  time  crowded  them 
into  unwholesome  hovels,  the  social  influence  of  which 
is  of  the  same  degrading  character. 


THE    TRUCK  SYSTEM.  367 

The  pest-breeding  and  morally  degrading  conditions 
of  the  homes  and  the  social  life  of  the  great  mass  of 
the  laboring  population  in  our  industrial  centres  almost 
beggars  description. 

I  have  long  been  convinced  that  if  their  true  con- 
dition was  fully  realized  by  the  great  intelligent  middle 
class,  they  would  not  long  be  permitted  to  be  used 
for  human  habitation.  It  is  a  common  thing  in  the 
manufacturing  centres,  even  in  the  Eastern  States, 
to  find  a  large  per  cent  of  the  laborers  practically  in 
a  state  of  pawn  to  the  corporation  for  which  they 
work.  The  tenements  in  which  they  live,  the  store  at 
which  they  trade,  as  well  as  the  factory  in  which  they 
work,  are  all,  directly  or  indirectly,  in  the  hands  of 
the  employer. 

By  this  means  the  store-book  and  the  pay-roll  are 
made  to  keep  pace  with  each  other,  and  a  large  per 
cent  of  the  laborers  scarcely  ever  receive  a  dollar  in 
money,  often  being  permanently  in  debt  to  the  cor- 
poration, for  which  the  latter  holds  a  mortgage  on 
their  household  effects.  Thus  the  laborers  are  teth- 
ered to  the  spot,  unless  they  go  forth  as  tramps,  leav- 
ing their  little  furniture  behind  them,  or,  as  is  com- 
monly the  case,  steal  away  in  the  night. "^ 


*  Of  this  I  can  speak  of  my  own  knowledge.  During  the  spring 
and  summer  of  1875  and  the  winter  of  1875-76  I  had  occasion  to 
visit  nearly  all  the  factory  towns  and  cities  in  New  England,  except 
Vermont.  I  found  the  "  truck  system"  was  the  general  rule,  espe- 
cially in  the  smaller  towns.  In  the  spring  of  1875  a  strike  took  place  in 
Taftville,  which  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  best  factory  villages  in 
Connecticut.  I  was  sent  there  from  Fall  River  as  a  representative  of 
the  United  States  Cotton  Operatives  Association,  of  which  Taftville 
was  a  branch,  to  investigate  the  case  and  endeavor  to  settle  the  dis- 
pute. I  found  a  large  number  of  families  who  had  never  been  out  of 
debt  to  the  company  since  they  went  to  the  place,  and  a  still  larger 


368  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

The  tenements  in  which  the  operatives  are  housed 
are  such  as  to  make  physical  health  and  moral  charac- 
ter almost  impossible.  They  are  generally  owned  by 
the  corporation  and  built  near  the  work,  without  re- 
gard to  the  sanitary  condition  of  the  surroundings. 
Frequently  from  six  to  ten  or  more  families  are  crowded 
into  one  building,  with  but  one  entrance,  and  not  even 
having  a  back  door  or  anything  approaching  modern 
conveniences.  Often  these  tenements  have  but  one 
privy  to  a  whole  house  of  many  families,  consisting  of 
from  thirty  to  fifty  persons. 

My  vocabulary  is  wholly  inadequate  to  describe  the 
condition  of  the  tenement-houses  I  have  seen  in  the 
factory  centres  in  New  England.  A  faint  conception, 
however,  of  the  condition  of  the  houses  of  the  labor- 
ing classes  may  be  drawn  from  the  following  official 
statement  in  reference  to  the  laborers'  homes  in 
Massachusetts,  the  most  advanced  State  in  the  Union  : 
"  In  the  cities  and  manufacturing  towns,"  says  the 
report,*  **  the  herding  together  of  tenants  in  large 
numbers  and  narrow  limits  has  become  wofully  prev- 
alent. In  a  single  building,  in  the  town  of  VV — ,  thirty- 
number  who  for  months  together  never  drew  a  penny  of  money  for 
wages.  Even  rent  for  a  seat  in  the  church  was  collected  in  the  mill 
office.  Being  unable  to  agree  upon  any  settlement  of  the  dispute,  the 
operatives  decided  to  leave  the  place  and  go  to  work  elsewhere.  Al- 
though the  union  was  ready  to  pay  all  the  expenses  of  their  moving,  a 
large  portion  of  them  were  compelled  to  stay  or  lose  all  their  furni- 
ture, this  being  in  pawn  to  the  corporation  store.  See  Report  of 
Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  1871,  pp.  467,  46S  ;  also 
ibid.^  pp.  434-438  ;  also  Report  for  1S72,  pp.  409-421.  Compare 
Report  of  Labor  Bureau  of  New  Jersey.  1882,  pp.  6-8  ;  ibid.,  1883, 
p.  126. 

*  Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  for 
1874,  pp.  33,  34.  See  also  ibid,,  1873,  p.  379  ;  ibid.,  1872,  pp.  442, 
443  ;  ibid.,  1871,  pp.  521-528. 


PEST-BREEDING  HOMES.  369 

two  feet  long,  twenty  feet  wide,  three  stories  high,  with 
attics,  there  habitually  exist  thirty-nine  people  of  all 
ages.  For  their  use  there  is  one  pump  and  one  privy 
within  twenty  feet  of  each  other,  with  the  several  sink- 
spouts  discharging  upon  the  ground  near  by.  The 
windows  are  without  weights,  and  the  upper  sashes  are 
immovable.  No  other  provision  is  made  for  fresh  air. 
Scores  of  similar  overcrowded  and  uncleanly  tenements 
exist  and  could  be  cited.  It  is  well  attested,"  con- 
tinues the  report,  **that  there  commonly  exist,  in 
connection  with  the  homes  of  the  laboring  classes 
everywhere,  filthy  and  insufficient  privies,  with  over- 
flowing  vaults,  unhinged  doors,  and  rotten  floors  ;  cess- 
pools, sink-drains,  and  sewers,  broken  or  surcharged, 
the  foul  discharges  permeating  the  soil  in  the  immedi- 
ate vicinity  of  wells  and  cisterns  ;  cellars,  where  damp- 
ness and  decay  are  doing  a  constant  work  of  death, 
and  yet  are  often  inhabited,  enclosures  made  pestilential 
by  the  causes  mentioned,  and  pig-pens  and  garbage- 
tubs  ;  while  stairs  and  passage-ways  are  carpeted  and 
draped  with  dirt  of  every  nature." 

The  statements  made  by  the  Labor  Bureau  are  fully 
sustained  by  the  investigations  of  the  Boards  of  Health 
and  Education,  as  a  most  superficial  glance  at  their 
reports  will  show.* 

Nor  is  Massachusetts  referred  to  because  her  labor> 
ers  are  worse  housed  than  those  of  other  States.  On 
the  contrary,  they  are,  on  the  whole,  socially  better 
conditioned  than  the  same  class  in  any  other  State. 
Indeed,  it  is  for  this  reason  that  industrial  and  social 

*  See  Fourth  Report  of  State  Board  of  Health,  p.  396  ;  Fifth  Re- 
port of  Board  of  Health  and  Works  of  Loca!  Boards  ;  Report  of  State 
Board  of  Health  for  1872-73.  Also  Report  of  Registration,  1870, 
p.  63. 


370  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

investigations  have  been  more  thorough,  and,  conse- 
quently, reliable  data  is  more  abundant  there  than 
elsewhere.  She  was  the  first  to  have  a  Labor  Bureau, 
and  its  investigations  have  been  more  exhaustive  and 
scientific  than  those  of  any  other,  perhaps,  in  the 
world  ;  and  she  has  enacted  more  industrial  legislation 
than  any  other  State. 

Since  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  was  instituted,  in 
1869,  fifteen  other  States  have  followed  suit,  and  a 
National  Labor  Bureau  has  also  been  organized,  and, 
so  far  as  their  investigations  have  been  at  all  compre- 
hensive, their  reports  reveal  the  social  condition  of  the 
laboring  classes  to  be  as  bad,  and,  in  many  States, 
worse  to-day  than  they  were  in  Massachusetts  ten 
years  ago."^ 

Moreover,  it  should  be  observed  that  these  abomi- 
nable tenements  in  which  the  laboring  classes  are 
housed,  for  the  most  part,  at  least,  outside  of  the  very 
large  cities,  are  owned  by  the  corporations,  and  the 
laborers  are  compelled  to  occupy  them,  on  the  cor- 
poration's terms,  as  a  condition  of  employment.  Even 
in  so  large  a  city  as  Fall  River,  Mass.,  I  have  seen 
operatives  discharged  for  refusing  to  live  in  corpora- 
tion tenements,  because  they  were  inferior  to  those  they 
were  occupying. 

If  we  turn  to  the  large  cities,  we  find  that,  in  many 
respects,  the  case  is  even  worse.  While  the  truck  sys- 
tem, for  obvious  reasons,  does  not  obtain  in  the  large 
cities,  the  tendency  to  crowd  the  masses  into  small, 

*  See  Second  Report  of  Bureau  of  Labor  of  New  York,  1885,  pp. 
154.  155.  277-286 ;  also  Maryland,  1885,  p.  61  ;  also  Michigan, 
1885,  p.  262  ;  also  the  Report  of  the  Tenement-House  Commission 
of  1885,  city  of  New  York,  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Health 
for  the  city  of  Baltimore,  etc. 


CITY   TEN-EM  EN  T-ffO  USES.  371 

unwholesome  dens,  where  the  causes  which  tend  to 
prevent  the  development  of  their  social  character 
wholly  neutralize  the  civilizing  influences  of  city  life, 
is  appallingly  manifest.  In  New  York  City  alone  there 
are  thousands  of  families,  consisting  of  from  four  to 
ten  and  twelve  persons  to  a  family,  eating,  sleeping, 
and  working  in  apartments  of  one  and  two  rooms, 
which,  according  to  the  official  statements,  are  in  an 
indescribably  filthy,  pest-breeding  condition.* 

Some  idea  of  the  alarming  extent  to  which  these 
conditions  prevail  may  be  conceived  when  it  is  known 
that  in  New  York  City  there  are  over  eight  hundred 
and  ninety-seven  thousand  nine  hundred  persons  liv- 
ing in  these  tenement-houses,  and  more  than  one 
hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  five  hundred 
families  existing  in  apartments  of  only  three  rooms 
each.f  Nor  is  this  state  of  things  confined  to  New 
York  City,  but,  unfortunately,  it  is  proportionately 
prevalent  in  all  the  large  cities.  In  Baltimore,  for  exam- 
ple, according  to  the  latest  returns,:!:  there  are  four 
thousand  one  hundred  and  twenty-two  families  that 
live  in  houses  or  apartments  consisting,  on  the  aver- 
age, of  only  two  and  one  sixth  rooms  to  a  family. 

The  inevitable  effect  of  such  conditions  is  too  obvi- 

*  See  account  of  cigar-making  in  tenement-houses  in  the  Report  of 
the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  New  York,  1884,  pp.  143-182  ;  also 
Report  of  the  Council  of  Hygiene,  pp.  8,  9,  41,  78,  84,  216,  217,  279, 
280,  349  ;  also  Report  of  Tenement-House  Commission,  1885,  pp.  26, 
27,  28,  29,  43,  44,  50,  51,  52,  84,  85,  86,  87,  etc. 

f  This  is  based  upon  the  investigations  of  the  Tenement-House 
Survey,  made  by  special  corps,  under  the  direction  of  the  Sanitary 
Bureau,  in  1879,  ^"^  the  unpublished  data  obtained  by  that  bureau 
down  to  September  ist,  1886.  This  is  further  sustained  by  the  re- 
turns given  in  the  United  States  Census  for  1880. 

X  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Health  for  1884. 


372  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS, 

ous  to  need  stating.  To  expect  anything  better  than 
social  depravity  from  such  influences  is  to  expect  a 
miracle.  It  may  be  said  that  we  give  the  foreigner 
the  ballot,  which  he  did  not  enjoy  in  the  Old  World. 
True,  but  in  so  doing,  without  at  the  same  time  fur- 
nishing the  opportunities  necessary  to  develop  the  in- 
telligence with  which  to  direct  its  use,  we  have  simply 
inflated  his  conscious  importance  as  a  social  factor, 
without  improving  the  quality  of  his  social  character. 
In  this  way  we  have  supplied  an  abundance  of  accessible 
and  cheap  material  for  political  and  social  corruption, 
which,  it  is  needless  to  say,  is  being  freely  utilized. 
Forgetting  that  the  most  fatal  danger  to  republican 
institutions  is  the  ballot  in  the  hands  of  the  poor  and 
ignorant  masses,  we  have,  in  our  economic  blindness, 
largely  fulfilled  Macaulay's  prophecy,  and  within  our 
midst  we  are  permitting,  if  not  promoting,  the  devel- 
opment of  the  "  Huns  and  Vandals,"  which,  though 
unconsciously,  none  the  less  surely  threaten  the  very 
life  of  the  republic. 

Nor  is  this  taking  an  unduly  pessimistic  view  of  the 
situation.  The  dangers  to  which  we,  more  than  any 
other  people,  are  exposed  from  this  source  are  alarm- 
ingly manifest  in  the  marked  lack  of  political  integrity 
and  industrial  and  social  safety  that  prevails.  If  we 
pause  for  a  moment  and  consider  where  anarchy,  and  the 
use  of  dynamite,  and  other  physical-force  methods  for 
reforming  social  evils  are  the  most  in  general  use  ; 
where  the  lack  of  confidence  and  even  pronounced  dis- 
trust between  social  classes  is  most  prevalent ;  where 
the  enmity  of  the  laborers  to  the  successful  classes  is 
most  fierce  and  outspoken  ;  where  the  hatred  of  and 
opposition  to  established  authority  is  most  bitter,  per- 
sistent, and  general,  and  where  all  forms  of  political 


POVERTY  MAKES  CHEAP  VOTERS.  373 

corruption — the  buying  of  votes,  the  selling  of  char- 
ters, the  packing  of  caucuses,  the  trading  of  offices, 
from  the  presidency  down — are  the  most  constant,  we 
shall  find  that  it  is  in  the  large  cities  and  industrial 
centres.  It  is  in  these  very  centres  where,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  greatest  proportion  of  foreigners  exist  under 
the  degrading  influences  of  our  infamous  tenement- 
house  and  factory  life  ;  where  poverty,  ignorance,  and 
vice  furnish  abundant  conditions  for  low  social  charac- 
ter, and  supply  the  most  inflammatory  material  for 
revolution,  and  the  strongest  excuse  for  despotism. 

The  existence  of  these  evils  is  painfully  recognized, 
but  not  so  the  causes  from  which  they  arise  and 
the  means  by  which  they  can  be  eliminated.  We 
have  observed  the  fact  that  the  advocates  of  anarchy, 
dynamite,  and  other  forceful  methods  of  social  disrup- 
tion, with  their  ignorant,  impulsive,  and  misguided  fol- 
lowers, are  mainly  persons  of  foreign  birth  and  charac- 
teristics. We  have  seen  that  while  the  foreign-born 
element  constitutes  only  about  fourteen  per  cent  of 
our  total  population,  it  furnishes  over  thirty  per  cent 
of  our  drunkenness  and  crime,  and  a  still  greater  per 
cent  of  the  corruptible  material  in  politics.  But  while 
we  have  developed  a  keen  perception  of  these  facts, 
we  have  shown  an  utter  incapacity  to  recognize  the 
obvious  causes  which  have  produced  them.  Instead 
of  endeavoring  to  ascertain  and  remove  the  influences 
which  promote  this  social  disease — the  influences 
which  prevent  the  development  of  the  mental,  moral, 
and  social  character — we  have,  for  the  most  part, 
been  content  with  denouncing  the  victims,  and  devis- 
ing, for  remedies,  measures  which  tend  to  their  further 
social  degradation. 

Among  the  measures  which  have  been  offered,  many 


374  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

of  which  have  been  adopted,  are  propositions  for  limit- 
ing immigration,  imposing  property,  educational,  and 
other  qualifications  for  voting  ;  lengthening  the  terms 
and  increasing  the  appointing  power  of  executive  offi- 
cers ;  making  popular  elections  less  frequent ;  taking  the 
expenditure  of  public  moneys  out  of  the  hands  of  popu- 
lar elective  bodies,  and  putting  it  into  those  of  ap- 
pointed commissioners  ;  taking  public  offices  out  of  the 
reach  of  politics,  etc.  Not  one  of  these  measures  has 
the  slightest  causative  relation  to  the  social  malady  for 
which  they  are  proposed  as  remedies.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  fact  that  they  have  emanated  from  the  journal- 
ism and  colleges  of  the  cultured  classes,  they  are  en- 
titled to  be  denounced  as  the  merest  political  quackery. 

After  having  been  to  Europe  and  Asia  and  induced 
the  poorest  and,  therefore,  the  lowest  class  of  laborers 
to  come  to  this  country,  and  then  turn  them  into  the 
mills,  mines,  and  factories  to  work  as  hard  and  as  long  as 
their  physical  energies  can  endure  ;  crowding  them 
together  in  unwholesome  tenements,  in  contrast  to 
which  the  modern  rumshop  is  a  refining  luxury ;  then 
to  denounce  them  for  their  lack  of  intellectual,  moral, 
and  social  character,  is  simply  to  condemn  them  for 
not  being  what  we  have  made  it  practically  impossible 
for  them  to  be. 

Nor  would  a  property  or  educational  qualification 
for  voting  in  any  way  tend  to  remedy  the  evil.  It  might 
disfranchise  the  poor  and  ignorant,  but  it  would  in  no 
way  tend  to  increase  their  wealth  or  intelligence. 
Thus,  having  blindly  prevented  the  social  development 
of  the  masses,  their  incapacity  is  made  the  excuse  for 
their  disfranchisement,  and,  under  the  pretence  of 
saving  civilization,  liberty  is  being  destroyed. 

The  same  is  true  of  all  attempts  to   improve  our 


TREASON   TO    THE  REPUBLIC.  375 

social  conditions  by  lengthening  the  terms  of  public 
offices,  increasing  the  appointing  power  of  executive 
officers,  reducing  the  frequency  of  popular  elections, 
etc.  Instead  of  developing  the  character  of  the  masses 
up  to  the  level  of  sustaining  our  democratic  institu- 
tions, these  measures  are  attempts  to  whittle  away  our 
democratic  institutions,  in  order  to  sustain  our  blind 
and  pernicious  industrial  policy.  As  such  measures 
do  not  affect  the  cause  of  the  evil,  each  step  in  that 
direction  only  tends  to  make  the  next  more  necessary 
and  the  ultimate  reign  of  despotism  more  certain. 

Such  miscalled  statesmanship,  whether  consciously 
vicious  or  ignorantly  blind,  is  the  veriest  high  treason, 
not  only  to  the  republic  here,  but  to  human  freedom 
everywhere.  Social  degradation  is  not  peculiar  to 
nationality,  but  to  character  ;  and  if  the  character  of 
the  foreign  element  in  our  population  is  lower  than 
that  of  the  native  American,  it  is  for  no  other  reason 
than  that  their  social  environment  has  been  viler. 

The  social  crisis,  especially  in  this  country,  is  in- 
creasing in  gravity  every  day.  Like  all  neglected 
economic  questions,  it  is  rapidly  assuming  a  social  and 
political  aspect  ;  and  unless  we  abandon  our  present 
undemocratic  and  uneconomic  policy  of  superficial 
tinkering  with  our  political  institutions,  to  evade  the 
effects  of  a  mistaken  industrial  policy,  and  approach 
the  subject  on  the  plane  of  broad  social  principles,  we 
shall  ere  long  find  ourselves  in  the  terrible  dilemma 
against  which  Macaulay  warned  us,  of  being  compelled 
to  choose  between  "  civilization  and  Hberty."  Social 
degradation  and  democracy  are  incompatible.  Either 
the  social  character  of  the  masses  must  be  elevated  to  the 
level  of  that  of  the  political  institutions y  or  no  power  on 
earth  can  prevent  the  character  of  the  latter  from  falling 


376  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

to  that  of  the  former.  This  is  the  verdict  of  universal 
social  laWy  from  which  there  is  no  appeal. 

The  question,  therefore,  that  most  urgently  demands 
the  attention  of  the  true  statesman  to-day,  beside 
which  all  schemes  for  mere  administrative  reform  are 
incomparably  insignificant,  is  that  of  increasing  the 
opportunities  for  elevating  the  social  character  of  the 
masses.  Give  us  this  condition,  and  all  else  will  be 
vouchsafed.  With  a  high  state  of  social  culture 
among  the  people,  wise  and  safe  reform  of  existing 
institutions  would  be  guaranteed.  Vote-buying  and 
ballot-box-stufifing,  with  their  numerous  phases  of 
political  chicanery,  would  then  be  impossible,  and 
hence  the  many  undemocratic  schemes  for  the  purifi- 
cation of  politics,  by  removing  the  government  further 
from  the  people,  which  are  so  assiduously  urged  by 
gilt-edged  reformers,  would  become  obviously  inex- 
cusable. 

Such  questions  as  tariff,  finance,  taxation,  etc., 
would  then  be  intelligently  considered  by  the  masses 
and  scientifically  settled  by  their  chosen  representa- 
tives, instead  of  being  manipulated  by  superficial  poli- 
ticians, as  is  always  the  case  with  an  ignorant  and  inca- 
pable voting  constituency.  Then  the  empty  eloquence 
of  earnest  but  ill-informed  enthusiasts,  who  substitute 
their  assumed  knowledge  of  God's  intentions  for  that 
of  economic  law,  would  exercise  a  less  dangerous  in- 
fluence over  the  masses.  The  various  socialistic  propo- 
sitions for  revolutionizing  existing  institutions  would 
also  be  estimated  nearer  their  true  social  worth,  and 
their  final  adoption  or  rejection  would  be  determined 
by  the  intelligent  judgment  of  the  masses,  rather  than 
by  the  sympathetic  eloquence  and  magnetic  personal 
influence  of  a  few  individual  leaders.     The  power  of 


LESS  HOURS  INDISPENSABLE.  377 

personal  leadership  always  diminishes  as  the  general 
intelligence  of  the  masses  increases. 

Manifestly,  therefore,  in  view  of  the  cosmopolitan 
character  of  our  population,  the  increasing  complexity 
of  our  industrial  methods,  and  the  democratic  charac- 
ter of  our  public  institutions,  the  maintenance  of  the 
influence  and  integrity  of  the  republic  makes  the  in- 
creased social  opportunities  of  the  masses — which  a  re- 
duction of  the  hours  of  labor  and  half  time  schools 
alone  can  adequately  supply — not  only  an  economic, 
but  also  an  imperative  social  and  political  necessity. 


SUMMARY  AND   CONCLUSION. 


In  the  foregoing  pages  we  have  taken  particular 
pains  to  avoid  all  appeals  to  sympathy  or  sentiment. 
We  have  asked  the  reader  totake  nothing  for  granted, 
but  have  endeavored  to  establish  inductively  every 
foot  of  the  ground  we  occupy. 

The  principles  established  and  propositions  presented 
in  this  volume  may  be  briefly  summarized  as  follows  : 

First.  That  the  natural  order  of  social  progress  is 
from  the  material  to  the  social,  intellectual,  and  moral, 
making  economics  the  basis  of  ethics,  and  not  ethics 
the  basis  of  economics.  In  short,  that  the  industrial 
condition  of  the  masses  is  the  subsoil  for  all  social, 
political,  and  moral  institutions.  That  poverty,  igno- 
rance, and  vice  give  despotism,  while  wealth,  intel- 
ligence, and  morality  give  freedom.  Therefore,  social 
progress  depends  upon  improving  the  material  condi- 
tions of  the  masses. 

Second.  That  the  wealth  of  the  laboring  classes  can- 
not be  increased  by  lessening  that  of  any  other  class, 
nor  by  any  method  of  redistribution  whatsoever,  but 
only  by  increasing  the  aggregate  wealth  produced. 
That  no  distribution  of  wealth  can  be  equitable  or 
economic  which  does  not  take  place  as  an  inseparable 
part  of  the  process  of  production. 
\^hird.  That  the  only  way  of  increasing  the  income 


SUMMARY  AND   CONCLUSION.  379 

and  improving  the  material  conditions  of  the  laboring 
classes  is  through  a  natural  and  permanent  advance 
of  real  wages. 

Fourth,  That  a  natural  rise  of  wages  does  not  tend 
to  increase  prices,  diminish  profits,  or  to  reduce 
rents. 

'  -^ifth.  That  the  rate  of  wages  is  not  governed  by 
supply  and  demand,  nor  by  the  amount  or  value  of 
the  product,  nor  by  the  skill  of  the  laborer  or  the 
caprice  of  the  employer,  but  that  the  price  of  labor  is 
governed  by  the  same  economic  law  as  that  of  every- 
thing else  which  is  subject  to  the  conditions  of  ex- 
change— viz.,  the  cost  of  production. 

^Sixth.  That  the  cost  of  producing  labor  is  governed 
by  the  standard  of  the  laborer's  living.  In  other 
words,  the  standard  of  living  is  the  law  of  wages. 

^^eventh.  That  the  standard  of  living  is  determined 
by  the  social  character  of  the  people.  Thus  wages, 
like  social  and  political  institutions,  finally  depend 
upon  the  social  character  of  the  masses. 

i^ighth.  That  the  character  of  any  people  or  class  is 
mainly  determined  by  the  social  environment,  being 
low  or  high  in  proportion  to  the  simplicity  or  com- 
plexity of  their  social  relations — i.e.,  according  to  the 
extent  of  their  social  opportunitiesA  Hence,  social  op- 
portunity, or,  in  other  words,  contact  with  an  increas- 
ing variety  of  social  influences,  is  the  natural  founda- 
tion for  all  industrial,  political,  and  moral  reform. 
Therefore,  no  proposed  change  can,  in  any  permanent 
sense,  improve  the  material  and  moral  well-being  of 
the  masses  which  does  not  tend  to  increase  their  social 
opportunities. 

^Ninth.  That  under  wage-conditions,  and  especially 
under  the  factory  system,  the  most,  if  not  the  only, 


380  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

feasible  means  for  enlarging  the  social  opportunities 
of  the  masses  is  a  general  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor. 

Tenth,  That  this  can  be  effectually  accomplished  by 
the  general  adoption  of  two  simple  propositions  : 

(i)  A  uniform  eight-hour  system  and  (2)  a  half- 
time  school  system  for  all  working  children  under  six- 
teen years  of  age. 

We  do  not  present  these  propositions  as  a  panacea 
for  all  the  ills  known  to  society,  but  we  present  them 
as  the  natural  and  necessary  first  step  toward  increas- 
ing the  wants,  developing  the  character,  and  advanc- 
ing the  wages  of  the  laboring  classes,  and  by  this 
means  lay  the  natural  economic  and  social  foundation 
for  permanently  sustaining  democratic  institutions 
here  and  promoting  the  progress  of  social  and  polit- 
ical freedom  everywhere. 

In  saying  this,  we  do  not  underrate  the  importance 
of  reforming  our  system  of  finance,  taxation,  civil 
service,  etc.  All  such  reforms,  however,  are  of  a 
secondary  character,  because  they  do  not  sustain  any 
fundamental  relation  to  the  influences  which  directly 
impel  social  progress.  They  are  administrative  rather 
than  creative  in  their  character.  They  relate  only  to 
the  wise  adjustment  and  regulation  of  the  wealth,  in- 
stitutions, and  social  relations  that  now  exist,  and  not 
to  the  development  or  the  creation  of  new.  The 
existing  wealth  might  be  as  equally  or  as  equitably 
distributed  among  all  classes  as  the  most  ideal  Commun- 
ist could  desire  ;  and  the  money  system,  the  taxation 
system,  the  land  system,  the  judiciary  system,  rail- 
road, telegraph,  postal,  and  civil  service  systems  might 
be  absolutely  perfect  without  materially  changing  the 
economic  and  social  condition  of  the  masses.  None 
of  these  things,  were   they  possible,   would  increase 


SUMMARY  AND   CONCLUSION.  381 

the  general  production  of  wealth,  increase  the  wages, 
or  raise  the  social  state  of  the  masses. 

But  however  important  these  reforms  may  be,  they 
are  impossible  until  the  industrial  conditions  and  social 
character  of  the  masses  are  elevated.  Public  honor 
and  capable  and  wise  administration  of  affairs  are  im- 
possible, especially  under  democratic  institutions, 
without  a  high  level  of  general  intelligence  and  char- 
acter among  the  great  mass  by  whom  the  legislative 
and  executive  officers  are  to  be  elected  and  sustained. 
Therefore  the  greater  the  importance  of  these  reforms, 
the  more  imperative  becomes  the  necessity  for  increas- 
ing the  opportunities  for  developing  the  social  charac- 
ter of  the  masses  upon  which  they  depend. 

The  true  philosophic  policy  for  the  wage-receiving 
classes  to  pursue  is  not  to  form  new  political  parties 
with  long  platforms  and  many  platitudes,  but  to  con- 
centrate all  their  political  and  social  influence  upon 
the  single  issue  of  securing  a  general  reduction  of  the 
hours  oflabar,_^ 

Nor  should  the  movement  be  limited  to  any  indus- 
try, or  state,  or  to  this  country  ;  it  should  be  purely 
social  in  its  character  and  mternational  in  its  opera- 
tions. 

Such  a  movement,  based  upon  the  principles  of 
sound  economic  philosophy  and  broad,  comprehen- 
sive statesmanship,  should  receive  the  hearty  co- 
operation and  support  not  only  of  workingmen,  but 
of  statesmen,  moralists,  philanthropists,  and  social 
reformers  of  all  kinds  whatsoever,  and,  above  all,  it 
should  receive  the  support  of  the  employing  class. 
If  an  eight-hour  system  for  adults  and  half-time  sys- 
tem for  all  working  children  under  sixteen  years  of 
age  could  be  uniformly  adopted  in  this  country,  Eng- 


382  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS. 

land,  France,  Germany,  Belgium,  and  Switzerland, 
its  effect  upon  emigration,  enforced  idleness,  business 
depressions,  and  upon  real  wages,  together  with  the 
growth  of  intelligence  and  social  character,  would  in 
twenty-five  years  change  the  face  of  the  industrial 
and  social  institutions  of  Christendom. 


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